LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

(Sjpp + ©xip?rig^l 

Shelf 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 

PROBLEM OF METHODISM: 



Being a ReYiew of the Residue Theory of Regeneration 
and the Second Ghange Theory of Sanctification; and 
the Philosophy of Christian Perfection. 



BY THE REV. J. M.' BOLAND, A.M., 



" Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."— /Stt, Paul. 



J. D. Barbee, Agekt. 
Publishing House op the m. e. Church, South. 
Printed for the Author. 
Nashville, Tenn. 
1888. 




Author of "A Bible View of Baptism. 1 





APR 16 1888 i 




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, 

BY J. M. BOLAND, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PREFACE. 



The following treatise is the result of years of 
investigation. The conclusions which we have 
adopted are the most reasonable and scriptural so- 
lution of the difficult problem involved. If there 
be those who can not accept our views, we shall 
think none the less of them for it. We claim the 
right to think and investigate, and we accord the 
same to others. If any man has any new light to 
shed upon the problem we have discussed, let him 
speak in the fear of God and the love of the truth, 
and we will hear him patiently. As truth is the 
pearl we prize above rubies, if we are in error we 
are ready to receive new light. We are not so 
shut up to our views but that we are ready to adopt 
any theory of the divine life which is more reason- 
able and scriptural than the one we have adopted. 

Our object is not to lower the standard of Chris- 
tian experience, but to remove some of the confu- 
sion which has gathered around it, and place it 
where the inspired writers left it. 

While we have called in question some opinions 

(3) 



4 



Preface. 



of our standard authors, yet our views quadrate 
with our Articles of Faith, and are in harmony 
with our Standards so far as they are in harmony 
with themselves. We allow no one to esteem our 
standard authors more highly than we do, but we 
do not believe that they are infallible any more 
than the Pope of Koine. If we did not believe 
that we have thrown new light on some points we 
would not offer another book on this often investi- 
gated subject; but believing this, this volume is 
sent forth on its mission by the Author. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Dr. Thoenwell truly says: "We love opin- 
ions instead of truth. Education becomes second 
nature — the dogmas of the one are mistaken for 
the instructions of the other. So we quietly accept 
as intuitively obvious, that which we learned in the 
nursery — hence, error is perpetuated from age to 
age. One generation transmits a large legacy of 
errors to another; and the dream of tranquillity is 
not disturbed until some emergency arises, which 
compels examination and enforces inquiry." 

But even then, the world js slow to give up long- 
received opinions. Every new idea advanced is 
weighed and criticised to see if it agrees with pre- 
conceived opinions, instead of trying it by the 
standard of reason and the word of God. Though 
Luther and Melanchthon succeeded in breaking 
loose from the leading errors of Romanism, they 
did not live long enough to give to the world a sys- 
tem of doctrine complete and harmonious in every 
part. A work of such magnitude as the Reforma- 
tion could not easily be accomplished in one gener- 

(5) 



6 



Introduction. 



ation. The errors of the " Dark Ages" were many, 
deep, and radical. But, by the aid of science and a 
more thorough study of the Bible, many of the 
tenets in that stupendous compilation called Ortho- 
doxy have been modified; as time moved on new 
errors were discovered, exposed, and finally re- 
nounced ; and still the work is not done. 

My idea is that we make a mistake in calling 
any of our systems orthodox — even the best of 
them. They are all imperfect; they all contain 
error — perhaps a good deal of it. In making up 
our Creed, we ought to start with the idea of choos- 
ing between imperfect orthodoxies, and not between 
one orthodoxy and a hundred heterodoxies; then 
take the one which on the whole presents the few- 
est difficulties and fits the largest number of ascer- 
tained facts. I would not dare to frame a form of 
words, however clear to my mind, and say to an- 
other man: Accept this, or you are not orthodox. 
" The Lord has more truth yet to break out of his 
holy word." I can not sufficiently bewail the con- 
dition of those who have come to a period in relig- 
ion. Luther, Calvin, and Knox, great and good 
and wise and learned ; Arminius, Wesley, and Wat- 



Introduction. 



7 



son, also great and good and wise and learned: is 
it high treason to say of any of them and all of 
them, " These penetrated not into the whole coun- 
sel of God ? " With every discussion there has been 
real progress. More comprehensive and precise 
statements, as well as clearer conceptions, have been 
attained up to the present day. In the future prog- 
ress will largely depend upon our liberality in con- 
sidering opinions which vary from the current and 
accepted orthodoxy, and also upon our vigor and 
boldness in resisting the error we may discover in 
such opinions. So let us help one another, and God 
will guide us into all truth. Then we shall all be 
orthodox. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. page 
A General Survey of the Subject 11 

Chapter II. 
The Twofold Nature of Man 34 

Chapter III. 
"Sin in Believers." 69 

Chapter IV. 
"How Readest Thou?" 97 

Chapter V. 
The Modern Fathers in Trouble 131 

Chapter VI. 
"Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 158 

Chapter VII. 

Christian Perfection 191 

Chapter VIII. 
"Not Under the Law, but Under Grace." 223 

Chapter IX. 
The Laws and Conditions of Spiritual Growth. 249 

Chapter X. 
The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life 281 

Chapter XI. 
" Now of the Things of Which We Have 

Spoken, This Is the Sum." 308 

(9) 



Tjje PfoMeg of Methodism. 

CHAPTER I. 
A General Survey of the Subject. 

The mission of Methodism is to 
" spread scriptural holiness over these 
lands." Mr. Wesley says : " My broth- 
er Charles and I, reading the Bible, saw 
we could not be saved without holiness ; 
we followed after it and incited others 
so to do. . . ... Holiness was our ob- 
ject — inward and outward holiness. . . 
God then thrust us out to raise up a holy 
people." "This doctrine (inward and 
outward holiness) is the grand deposi- 
tum which God has lodged with the peo- 
ple called Methodists ; and for the sake 

(11) 



12 



The Problem of Methodism. 



of propagating this doctrine he appears 
to have raised us up." 

In writing to his brother Charles, 
Mr. Wesley says : " Insist everywhere 
on full salvation received now by faith. 
Press the instantaneous blessing." 
Again he says : " Let all our preachers 
make a point of preaching perfection to 
believers, constantly, strongly, explicit- 
ly. ... I am afraid Christain j)er- 
fection will be forgotten. A general 
faintness in this respect has fallen on 
the whole kingdom. Sometimes I seem 
almost weary of striving against the 
stream of both preachers and people." 
He wrote to Dr. Clarke thus : " To re- 
tain the grace of God is much more 
than to gain it. And this should be 
strongly urged on all who have tasted 
of perfect love. If you can prove that 
any of our preachers or leaders, either 



A General Survey of the Subject. 13 

directly or indirectly, speak against it, 
let him be a preacher or a leader no 
longer. I doubt whether he should con- 
tinue in the Society. Because he that 
could thus speak in our congregation 
cannot be an honest man." 

Dr. Clarke says : "If Methodists give 
up preaching entire sanctification they 
will soon lose their glory. . . . Let 
all those who retain the apostolic doc- 
trine, that 'the blood of Jesus Christ 
cleanseth from all sin,' press every be- 
liever to go on to perfection and expect 
to be saved while here below, unto the 
fullness of the blessing of the gospel of 
Christ." 

Bishop Asbury says : "lam divinely 
impressed with a charge to preach sanc- 
tification in every sermon." 

Bishop McKendree wrote to the se- 
raphic Summerfield thus : " But superior 



14 



The Problem of Methodism. 



to all these I trust you will ever keep 
in view, in all your ministrations, the 
great design which we believe God in- 
tended to accomplish in the world, in 
making us i a people that were not a 
people.' I mean the knowledge, not of 
a free and a present, but also a full sal- 
vation — in other words, a salvation from 
all sin unto all holiness. Insist much 
on this ; build up the Churches herein, 
and proclaim aloud that 'without holi- 
ness no man shall see the Lord.' Under 
the guidance of the Spirit of Holiness, 
this doctrine will be acknowledged of 
God ; signs will follow them that be- 
lieve and press after this uttermost sal- 
vation, and our people will bear the 
mark of their high-calling, become a 
holy nation, a peculiar people." 

In addition to these individual utter- 
ances, the Bishops in their quadrennial 



A General Survey of the Subject. 15 

addresses, and the General Conferences 
in their pastoral addresses to the whole 
Church, "have, at various periods, sent 
forth the most unequivocal and emphat- 
ic deliverances." 

In their quadrennial address to the 
General Conference of 1824, the Bish- 
ops said : " Do we, as preachers, feel the 
same child-like spirit which so eminent- 
ly distinguished our first ministers? 
Do we come to the people in the fullness 
of the blessing of the gospel of peace? 
. . . Are we striving by faith and 
obedience to elevate our hearts and lives 
to the standard of gospel holiness? or 
are we wishing to have the standard 
lowered to our unsanctified natures? 
In short, are we content to have the 
doctrine of Christian holiness an article 
of our Creed only, without becoming ex- 
perimentally and practically acquainted 



16 The Problem of Methodism. 

with it? Are we pressing after it as the 
prize of our high calling in Christ Je- 
sus? ... If the Methodists lose 
sight of this doctrine they will fall by 
their own weight. Their success in 
gaining members will be the cause of 
their dissolution. Holiness is the main 
cord that binds us together. Relax this 
and you loosen the whole system. . . . 
The original design of Methodism was 
to raise up and preserve a holy people. 
This was the principal object which Mr. 
Wesley had in view. To this end all the 
doctrines believed and preached by the 
Methodists tend. Whoever supposed, 
or who that is acquainted with the case, 
can suppose it was designed, in any of 
its parts, to secure the applause and 
popularity of the world, or a numerical 
increase of worldly or impenitent men? 
Is there any provision made for the ag- 



A General Survey of the Subject. 17 

grandizernent of our ministers or the 
worldly-mindedness of our members? 
None whatever! " 

In 1832 the General Conference is- 
sued a pastoral address to the whole 
Church, in which they said : " When we 
speak of holiness we mean that state in 
which God is loved with all the heart 
and served with all our powers. This, 
as Methodists, we have said, is the priv- 
ilege of the Christian in this life. . . . 
Is it not time, in this matter, to return 
to first principles ? Is it not time that 
we throw off the inconsistency with 
which we are charged in regard to this 
matter? . . . And when this shall 
come to pass we may expect a corre- 
sponding increase of Christian enjoy- 
ment, and in the force of religious in- 
fluence we shall exert over others." 

Passing by many more documents of 
2 



18 



The Problem of Methodism. 



this kind from which we might quote, 
we come to the Centennial Conference 
of American Methodism, which met in 
Baltimore in 1884, and which re-af- 
firmed the faith of the Church in all its 
branches, in these words : " We remind 
you, brethren, that the mission of Meth- 
odism is to promote holiness. This end 
and aim enters into all our organic life. 
Holiness is the fullness of life, the crown 
of the soul, the joy and strength of the 
Church. It is not a sentiment or an 
emotion, but a principle inwrought in 
the heart, the culmination of God's 
work in us followed by a consecrated 
life." 

Thus an earnest desire for Bible. Ho- 
liness drew together in Christian sym- 
pathy and finally organized that band 
of godly men which were first called 
the "Holy Club," then " Methodists." 



A General Survey of the Subject. 19 



As they said themselves, they banded 
together to " seek inward and outward 
holiness." They " hungered and thirst- 
ed after righteousness." They groaned 
to be " cleansed from all sin," and to be 
"filled with all the fullness of God." 
So they " organized class-meetings, 
where they might open their hearts one 
to another, and tell their conflicts and 
triumphs, their joys and sorrows, and 
thus mutually stimulate and assist." 
They met in foundries and workshops 
and in the open air to pray and sing 
and exhort. In love-feasts the} 7 told of 
their growth in grace and of their yearn- 
ings after holiness of heart and life. 
They were filled and ruled by one su- 
preme, overmastering desire to be holy 
themselves and urge others to the same 
experience. They preached it, prayed 
for it, professed it, sung of it, illustrat- 



20 



The Problem of Methodism. 



ed it in their lives, and died testifying 
" The blood of Jesns Christ his Son 
cleanseth from all unrighteousness." 
And when this band of devout souls 
" crystallized into a Church," it was for 
the expressed purpose of elevating 
Christian experience, reviving primi- 
tive Christianity, and of " spreading 
scriptural holiness over the land." And 
so they adopted the " General Rules " 
of Mr. Wesley's " United Societies " as 
their " conception of Bible religion, af- 
firming that all these rules are taught 
of God in his written word, which is 
the only rule and the sufficient rule of 
our faith and practice. And all these 
we know his Spirit writes on truly 
awakened hearts." 

In keeping with all this, we call at- 
tention to the fact that the vows of 
Church-membership demand a complete 



A General Survey of the Subject. 



21 



consecration : " Dost thou renounce the 
devil and all his works — the vain pomp 
and glory of the world, with all covet- 
ous desires of the same, and the carnal 
desires of the flesh, so that thou wilt 
not follow or be led by them ? Answer : 
I renounce them all. Wilt thou then 
obediently keep God's holy will and 
commandments, and walk in the same 
all the days of thy life? Answer: I 
will endeavor so to do, God being my 
helper." Thus a complete surrender was 
demanded of each applicant at the very 
threshold of the Church ; none were in- 
vited to join unless he had a fixed " de- 
sire to flee from the wrath to come, and 
to be saved from his sins." 

When ministers were to be set apart 
in this Church, " these spiritually-mind- 
ed fathers" said: "Let the following 
questions be asked : Do they know God 



22 The Problem of Methodism. 



as a pardoning God? Have they the 
love of God abiding in them ? Do they 
desire nothing but God? Are they 
holy in all manner of conversation?" 
When, after sufficient trial, these preach- 
ers were brought forward to be received 
into the Annual Conference, and ap- 
pointed regular pastors over the flock, 
they were asked the following questions 
— viz. : " Have you faith in Christ ? Do 
you expect to be made perfect in love in 
this life? Are you groaning after it? 
Are you resolved to devote yourself 
wholly to God and his work?" In 
these questions, and the answers given, 
the mind and purpose of the Methodist 
Church are clearly defined. Raised up, 
as she was, to " spread scriptural holiness 
over these lands," she has always re- 
fused to ordain any preacher who was in- 
different on the subject of Bible holiness. 



A General Survey of the Subject. 23 



Here, then, we find the central pur- 
pose and inspiration of Methodism. It 
is Primitive Christianity revived — 
" Christianity in earnest " — " Christ in 
you the hope of glory:" "whom we 
preach, warning every man, and teach- 
ing every man in all wisdom ; that we 
may present every man perfect in Christ 
Jesus." " Methodism is for Bible holi- 
ness, or it is for nothing. Take that out 
of our preaching and it is emasculated. 
Take that out of your living and you 
have nothing left worth your time and 
effort!" 

If we turn to the Bible we find holi- 
ness taught, holiness commanded, holi- 
ness offered, holiness attainable, holiness 
already attained and enjoyed. If "Christ 
gave himself for us that he might re- 
deem us from all iniquity, and purify 
unto himself a peculiar people, zealous 



24 



The Problem of Methodism. 



of good works," then we may be "puri- 
fied" and become a "peculiar people." 
If " Christ died without the gate that 
he might sanctify the people with his 
own blood," then the people may be 
"sanctified" and "preserved blameless 
until the coming of the Lord Jesus." 
If " Christ also loved the Church, and 
gave himself for it ; that he might sanc- 
tify and cleanse it, and present it to 
himself a glorious Church, not having 
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but 
that it should be holy and without blem- 
ish," then the Church maybe "holy, not 
having spot, or wrinkle, or blemish, or any 
such thing! " To assume any thing less 
than this is to cast contempt on the 
provisions of grace, and to limit and 
dishonor the vicarious death of Christ ! 
Holiness is the great truth that glows 
on every page of revelation, and webs 



A General Survey of the Subject. 



25 



its way all through the Bible. It spark- 
les, and whispers, and sings, and shouts, 
in all its prophecy, and biography, and 
poetry, and promises, and prayers ! No 
wonder, then, that John and Charles 
Wesley concluded "from reading the 
Bible," that they " could not be saved 
without holiness." The truth is, all who 
read the Bible as the word of God are 
led to the same conclusion. Even the 
Church of Rome, with all her corrup- 
tions and abominations and perversions 
of Scripture, found it easier to invent a 
purgatory in which to purify the soul, 
than to set aside the grand Bible doc- 
trine, ''without holiness no man shall 
see the Lord." And if there is a Church 
on earth which does not hold and teach 
that holiness is necessary to get to heav- 
en, I have never heard of it. The only 
controversy among the Churches is in 



26 The Problem of Methodism. 



regard to the time, the place, and the 
means by which the work is done. 
Methodism stands alone among all the 
Churches, in preaching a present salva- 
tion from all sin, by faith in the blood of 
the Lamb, and the possibility of such a one 
" abiding in Christ and sinning not." 

Now, while every branch of Method- 
ism stands pledged to preach a present 
salvation from all sin, to be followed by 
a life of holiness, yet it is a lamentable 
fact that from John Wesley to the pres- 
ent there have been two theories of the 
divine life shut up in the womb of Meth- 
odism ; and, like Esau and Jacob, they 
have " struggled together." While John 
Wesley did more than any other man 
to revive primitive Christianity and to 
clear up the muddy theology of the 
Dark Ages, yet it is a remarkable fact 
that he failed to harmonize his theory 



A General Survey of the Subject. 



27 



of the divine life at some points; "and 
what shall the man do that cometh after 
the king?" The modern Methodist 
fathers and authors, who adopted Mr. 
Wesley's theory, have not only failed to 
harmonize Mr. Wesley with himself, 
but they have " found no end in wan- 
dering mazes lost." If the reader thinks 
these are strong statements, we plead 
guilty, for we weighed every word in 
order to make them strong; but if he 
thinks they are too strong, then we ask 
him to suspend his final judgment until 
he has read these pages through. 

The great mistake Mr. Wesley made 
was in adopting the " residue theory of 
regeneration" and the "second change 
theory of sanctification." The next mis- 
take was in confounding " sanctification 
with Christian perfection." This mis- 
take has done a deal of harm. Take 



28 The Problem of Methodism. 

any theory of sanctification you please 
■ — let it be a first, second, third, or 
fourth blessing; but do not confound 
sanctification with Christian perfection. 
Sanctification is moral purity ; perfec- 
tion is Christian maturity. The one is 
the result of an act of cleansing; the 
other is the result of a growth in grace. 
The one is done in a moment ; the other 
is the work of time and experience. 
The newborn soul may be pure, but he 
cannot be mature. 

After reading every book on the sub- 
ject I could obtain, after consulting 
every text of scripture quoted, I have 
reached this conclusion: Regeneration 
is a complete work in its nature, and 
includes sanctification, or moral purity, 
while Christian perfection is a state of 
freedom from sin, and includes a matu- 
rity of the Christian graces. The one 



A General Survey of the Subject. 29 

is instantaneous and complete, admit- 
ting of no degrees ; the other is progress- 
ive — a growth, a going on, until the full 
stature of a perfect man in Christ is 
reached. Holiness and perfect love will 
fit into this theory, at the proper place, 
as we proceed. 

The Ninth Article of the Church of 
England declares that ''original sin is 
the corruption of the nature of every 
man ; . . . and this infection of nat- 
ure doth remain in them that are regener- 
ated." As Mr. Wesley belonged to this 
Church, and wrote from the stand-point 
of this Mnth Article, we can see how 
he came to adopt the residue theory of 
regeneration; and then he had to give 
up the doctrine of sanctification, or else 
bring in sanctification as a " second 
change" to get rid of this "remaining 
corruption." But, as Mr. Wesley cut 



30 



The Problem of Methodism. 



this objectionable clause out of the Ar- 
ticles of Faith which he prepared for the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in Ameri- 
ca, it is a little strange that so many 
American Methodists adopted the resi- 
due theory of regeneration. 

In reading up on this subject, I have 
been amazed to see how this theory of 
the divine life has led men to minify re- 
generation and magnify sanctification. 
Take a few examples: "The carnal 
mind survives the work of regeneration, 
and is often actively rebellious in the 
hearts of real Christians." " In this re- 
generate state, the former corruptions 
of the heart may remain and strive for 
the mastery." "Although in regenera- 
tion holy principles are infused into the 
soul, yet the change produced is only par- 
tial.'" "As long as Christians live in a 
partially purified state," etc. " The new 



A General Survey of the Subject. 



31 



life has existence in a soul partially car- 
nal in the mere regenerate." "Regen- 
eration removes some sin or pollution, and 
entire sanctification removes the corrup- 
tion which remains after regeneration." 
" Regeneration consists simply in par- 
tial renovation and divine adoption." 

Now I submit that any theory of the 
divine life that leads to such expres- 
sions as the above cannot be harmo- 
nized with the Bible idea of the " new 
birth," the "new man," and the "new 
creation." Hence, Mr. Wesley never 
did reconcile the residue theory with 
his own definition of the "new birth." 
I would like to see one of our mod- 
ern " Holiness Conventions" harmonize 
the following utterances of Mr. Wes- 
ley: 



1. "By all the grace 
given at justification, we 



1. "To be born again, 
is to be inwardly changed 



32 The Problem of Methodism. 



cannot wholly cleanse 
either our hearts or 
hands. Most sure we can- 
not, till it shall please our 
Lord to speak to our 
hearts again, to speak the 
second time, ' Be clean ! ' 
and then only, the lep- 
rosy is cleansed. Then 
only the carnal mind is 
destroyed, and inbred sin 
subsists no more." 

2. " If there be no sec- 
ond change, no instanta- 
neous deliverance, after 
justification, then we 
must remain full of sin 
till death." "Certainly 
sanctification is an in- 
stantaneous deliverance 
from all sin." 



from all sinfulness to all 
holiness." "He is cre- 
ated anew in Christ Je- 
sus. He is washed, he is 
sanctified. His heart is 
purified by faith; he is 
cleansed from the cor- 
ruption that is in the 
world." "That which is 
born of the Spirit is spir- 
itual, heavenly, divine, 
like its author." 

2. " Every one that 
hath Christ in him the 
hope of glory is saved 
from all sin, from all un- 
righteousness." " It is un- 
deniably true that sanc- 
tification is a progressive 
work, carried on in the 
soul by slow degrees." 



After reading the above deliverances, 
and many more of the same import, we 
are prepared to hear him say: " Per- 



A General Survey of the Subject. 



33 



haps I have an exceedingly complex idea 
of sanctification ! "* 

We propose to examine the residue 
theory of regeneration and the second 
change theory of sanctification, in the 
light of reason, psychology, and the 
Word of God. In order to explain those 
mental states which have been called 
"sin in believers," "inbred sin," the 
"remains of the carnal mind," the " cor- 
ruption of our nature," the "body of 
sin," and the "old man," we must first 
discuss the twofold nature of man, the 
effects of the fall, and the philosophy 
of temptation. 

* The only solution of this confusion is given in 
the last chapter of this book, to which we call spe- 
cial attention. 

3 



CHAPTER II. 
The Twofold Nature of Man. 

Every man — and of course every 
Christian — has at least two natures.* 
The one is designed to be subordinate 
and subservient to the other. Each has 
its office to fill — it takes both to consti- 
tute a man; and "the highest style of 
man " is he whose twofold nature is in 

* The sharp psychomachy, which Paul so well 
portrays, interprets the consciousness of millions. 
That man is not all of the earth; that he is en- 
dowed with a higher nature, reaching to heaven, all 
Christians agree, and with them thousands who are 
not Christians coincide. In the minuter analysis 
of humanity, Dichotomists and Trichotomists con- 
tend, and many deeply interesting questions in On- 
tology and Psychology arise. These mysteries of 
humanity have bewildered theologians, and thereby 
troubled Christians. 
(34) 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 



35 



harmony at once with itself and with 
the Creator. 

In reference to the effects of the fall 
of man and the work of restoration 
through the gospel, there are two errone- 
ous opinions or theories. The one is, that 
such is the condition of man's lower nat- 
ure, since the fall, that it is impossible 
for him to live without committing sin 
daily. The other is, that all the lower 
affinities and sensibilities of our nature 
must be so crucified and destroyed that 
there will be no stirring of the emotions 
nor enkindling of the desires toward 
any forbidden object. 

The first theory is supposed to be 
taught in the seventh chapter of Ro- 
mans. But the character described 
there is a convicted Pharisee, and not a 
renewed and sanctified Christian. The 
new life and the Christian character 



36 



The Problem of Methodism. 



are described in the eighth chapter of 
Romans. Moreover, John says : " Who- 
soever is born of God [and abideth in 
him] doth not commit sin." 

The second theory is supposed to be 
set forth in the sixth chapter of Romans 
and other passages, where the Christian 
life is represented as a "crucifixion of 
the old man." and a "death of sin." 
Now the great object of the gospel is 
to give to our spiritual nature, which is 
"dead in sin," its true, original life, 
and through it to restore all the lower 
elements of our essential constitution 
to order and their proper functions, but 
not to destroy any of them. Dr. Clarke 
says : " The ' old man,' the £ body of sin,' 
is the same as the ' infection of our nat- 
ure,' in consequence of the fall." 
Hence, the "old man." the "body of 
sin." must be " destroyed," but not the 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 37 



nature of man. The " corruption of our 
nature" must be removed, but all the 
essential elements of our twofold nat- 
ure are left intact. When the " de- 
sires are drawn out and enticed " by an 
evil object, the desires must be "reject- 
ed" and thereby " mortified" but neither 
the capacity to desire, nor the suscepti- 
bility to feel the force of enticement to 
sin, are to be destroyed ; for that would 
put man beyond the possibility of being 
tempted, which possibility must exist 
while probation continues. 

Let us go to the very root of this sub- 
ject. Without a clear view of man's 
essential nature, we are incompetent to 
judge of the correctness or defects of 
any theory of the divine life. If we 
wish to know what were the effects of 
the fall upon man's essential nature, and 
what is necessary to renew man's nature 



38 The Problem of Methodism. 



"in righteousness and true holiness," 
we must ascertain what that nature was 
as he came from the hand of his Crea- 
tor. We learn from the Bible that 
man, while in a state of innocence and 
purity, was subjected to temptation ; and 
that he possessed, then, appetites, emo- 
tions, and desires similar in nature to 
those belonging to the human mind and 
constitution now. " When the woman 
saw that the tree was good for food, and 
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a 
tree to be desired to make one wise, she 
took of the fruit thereof and did eat." 
(Gren. iii. 6.) Here we have: first, a 
perception of a forbidden object; sec- 
ond, the appetite for food awakened; 
third, the emotions of pleasure stirred ; 
fourth, the desire to know enkindled; 
and, finally, the volition and act that 
constituted the sin by which man fell. 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 



39 



It is clear, then, that man, in his best 
estate, possessed all those mental ca- 
pacities called natural sensibilities, and 
that these sensibilities were susceptible 
of being addressed and excited by a 
forbidden object. Instead, then, of 
these natural sensibilities being, in some 
mysterious way, the result of the fall, 
they belong to and are inseparable 
from the human constitution in its orig- 
inal organization. Man, considered in 
the light of Biblical psychology, pos- 
sessed them all in his pristine purity. 
But when he fell, those faculties which 
were essential to humanity became per- 
verted and corrupted, and passions 
which were intended to perform only a 
subordinate part became controlling; 
but no new faculty was projected into 
his constitution. Whatever we may 
find in man's fallen, depraved nature to 



40 The Problem of Methodism. 



purify and regulate, we find no constitu- 
tional sensibilities to be obliterated, no 
faculty to be destroyed. 

Depravity, then, is not a real entity, 
existing apart from man's essential con- 
stitution — not an actual substance, or 
real entity, projected into man's consti- 
tution ; but a corruption and a perversion 
of man's essential powers. In the ab- 
sence of spiritual life, the great control- 
ling principle which was lost in the fall, 
man's moral nature is not only para- 
lyzed, but all the lower elements of his 
essential nature transcend their true 
bounds and run riot in indulgence, so 
that " man is prone to go astray from 
his youth up." Now, this depravity is 
personified by Paul as the "old man," 
the "body of sin;" because man's 
higher nature is under the dominion of 
his lower nature. This depravity, this 



The T w of old Nature of Man. 41 

dominion of the flesh over the spirit, this 
"course of carnal thinking," Paul also 
calls "the carnal mind." Now this 
"course of carnal thinking," this "in- 
herited tendency to sin," is what Paul 
calls "the law of sin and death," from 
which, he affirms, "the law of the Spir- 
it of life in Christ Jesus makes us free" 
Hence, " to be carnally minded is [spir- 
itual] death ; but to be spiritually 
minded is life and peace." "Now if 
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, 
he is none of his;" and, "if so be that 
the Spirit of God dwell in you," then 
this " law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus hath made you free from the law 
of sin and death." How any man can 
read and study the sixth chapter of Ro- 
mans, where Paul proves conclusively 
that the normal state of spiritual life 
presupposes a "crucifixion of the old 



42 The Problem of Methodism. 



man" and a "destruction of the body 
of sin" and a "death to sin," and then 
hold to the "residue theory of regen- 
eration," is simply amazing ! And how 
any man can read and study the eighth 
chapter of Romans, where Paul discuss- 
es the "carnal mind" and the "spirit- 
ually minded," and then say that " this 
carnal mind survives the work of re- 
generation, and is often actively rebell- 
ious in the hearts of real Christians," 
is a mystery that transcends the enig- 
matical philosophy of the Persians. To 
be able to expose such errors, and to ex- 
plain those mental states relied on to 
prove them, we must investigate the 
laws that govern our twofold nature far 
enough to have a clear view of the 
mental states involved in the philoso- 
phy of temptation. 

In all the discussions of the twofold 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 43 



nature of man which I have seen, bear- 
ing on the " residue theory of regener- 
ation," several important facts have 
been ignored or overlooked. The ad- 
vancement that has been made in men- 
tal science, in some of its nicer distinc- 
tions, since Mr. Wesley's day, puts one 
on vantage-ground which he did not 
occupy, or he would have been shocked 
at the very thought of putting "lust" 
in the catalogue of " sin in believers ; " 
for " lust is an inordinate desire," and 
no desire can become inordinate with- 
out the sympathy and assent of the will ; 
and, therefore, wherever "lust" exists, 
its possessor has fallen into condemna- 
tion. (Matt. v. 28.) But to the ignored 
or overlooked facts. All standard au- 
thors on mental philosophy divide the 
sensibilities into two classes — natural 
and moral. Under the term " natural 



44 



The Problem, of Methodism. 



sensibilities " they speak of natural emo- 
tions and desires ; and under the term 
" moral sensibilities " they speak of mor- 
al emotions and obligatory feelings. 

Now, it is in the natural sensibilities 
that we find a class of mental states 
that connect us with the material and 
outer world, perception being the door 
of communication. These sensibilities, 
being natural, have no moral quality in 
themselves, but they form the basis of 
every solicitation to evil. The mind is 
so constituted that without the natural 
sensibilities — the natural emotions and 
desires — we cannot see how any man 
could be enticed to evil ; but with these, 
we can see how even the Incarnate Son 
of God could be "tempted in all points 
like as we are," and how he could "suf- 
fer, being tempted." 

As the natural sensibilities connect 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 45 



us with the natural world, so the moral 
sensibilities connect us with the spirit- 
ual world ; and these form the basis of 
all religion. In these we find man's 
capacity to be religious ; and here is the 
region where the fall expended its 
blighting power. The effects of the fall 
upon the natural sensibilities may be 
accounted for largely in their excessive 
indulgence, growing out of the absence 
of a moral or spiritual power to control 
and direct them. But when we enter 
the moral nature of man, we find a pict- 
ure answering to the one drawn by the 
pencil of inspiration to represent fallen, 
depraved humanity. 

Now, as sin has done its fearful work 
in man's moral and spiritual nature, so 
here is the place for the work of resto- 
ration to be expected and the work of 
cleansing to be sought. We do not deny 



46 



The Problem of Methodism. 



that the entire man will feel the ef- 
fects of this restoration, when the soul 
is " renewed according to the divine 
pattern in righteousness and true holi- 
ness;" for this restores order to the 
mind, puts the will upon its throne, and 
gives it power to resist every solicita- 
tion to evil, and to "reject" and " mor- 
tify " the desires excited and drawn out 
toward forbidden objects. But to say 
that the natural sensibilities are to be 
so " crucified " as not to be stirred and 
enkindled by a pleasing or a desirable 
object, implies their utter destruction. 
To say that they may be dead to all 
evil but alive to all good will not re- 
move the difficulty, for their being nat- 
ural and not moral faculties makes no 
distinction — they are simply pleased 
at whatever is pleasing and desire what- 
ever is desirable, and the moral facul- 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 47 

ties must detect the evil and the will 
reject the wrong. 

This brings us to consider the mental 
states involved in temptation — a subject 
about which much has been written, 
and which is intimately connected with 
any theory of the divine life, but espe- 
cially with the "residue theory of re- 
generation " and the "second change 
theory of sanctification." George Bell 
and Thomas Maxfield, who were the 
first of Mr. Wesley's lay preachers to 
profess sanctification as a "second 
change," soon professed to have become 
so holy as to be " free from temptation. " 
These enthusiasts and their successors 
failed to see that probation implies trial, 
and trial implies temptation, and there- 
fore temptation must exist as long as 
probation lasts. 

But there are others who admit that 



48 



The Problem of Methodism. 



no state of grace in this life will free us 
from temptation, yet they so confound 
temjDtation and sin that they are con- 
stantly seeking exemption from the for- 
mer under the name of the latter. 
These errorists have pressed the doc- 
trine of self-crucifixion so far that, if 
they could live up to their theory, they 
would be incapable of feeling any solic- 
itation to evil, and hence would be be- 
yond the reach of temptation. The 
only way to clear up this confusion is 
to so analyze the mental states involved 
in temptation as to be able to locate 
the exact point at which temptation 
ends and sin begins. 

Now there can be no temptation (in 
the sense of a solicitation to evil) unless 
the solicitation is brought ultimately to 
press upon the will. The will is the 
great umpire of the mind; and every 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 49 



solicitation to evil must come to this 
tribunal before it can be regarded a 
temptation. There are some prelimi- 
nary steps; but there is a principle 
upon which the temptation presses — 
around which the force of the solicita- 
tion gathers and enters into contest — 
and that principle is the will. 

Now we can only reach the will from 
without through perception, the natural 
emotions, and desires. For instance, a 
man perceives a forbidden object, which 
is pleasing to his natural sensibilities ; 
this stirs his emotions and enkindles 
his desires, and the desires press upon 
the will for its concurrence ; then, and 
not till then, does the solicitation be- 
come a temptation. The mental process 
in temptation, therefore, is from per- 
ception to emotions, from emotions to 

desires, and from desires to the will. 
4 



50 



The Problem of Methodism. 



Let us compare this analysis of temp- 
tation with the Word of God: "And 
when the woman saw that the tree was 
good for food, and it was pleasant to the 
eyes, and a tree to be desired to make 
one wise, she took of the fruit thereof 
and did eat. 11 (Gen. iii. 6.) Here we 
have the whole process, step by step, 
from perception to volition, of a success- 
ful temptation, and it agrees with our 
analysis in every particular. 

In James i. 14, 15 we find the exact 
point where temptation ends and sin 
begins. We give Mr. Wesley's trans- 
lation of this important text : " Every 
man is tempted when he is drawn away 
of his own desire and enticed [so far it 
is a temptation]. Then when desire 
hath conceived [gained the assent of the 
will] it bringeth forth sin." That is 
clear. The "man is tempted when he 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 



51 



is drawn away of his own desire and 
enticed ; " the solicitation, then, must be 
addressed to the will, or it is no temp- 
tation at all, and the will is reached 
through perception, the emotions, and 
the desires. It follows, then, that the stir- 
rings of the emotions and the enkin- 
dlings of the desires, aside from the con- 
currence of the will, have no more moral 
quality than the pulsations of the heart. 
The one is the natural process for cir- 
culating the blood ; the other is the nat- 
ural process of a temptation. And yet 
a large class of good men so confound 
temptation with sin — the enkindlings of 
desire with the acts of the will — that 
every time they are severely tempted 
— " drawn away of their own desires 
and enticed " — they imagine that they 
have sinned. Hence, they are seeking 
a state of grace in this life in which 



52 



The Problem of Methodism. 



their emotions and desires will never be 
stirred or enticed by a forbidden object. 
They might as well seek a state of ani- 
mal life in which the heart will cease 
to throb and the machinery" of life con- 
tinue to move. This is the class of er- 
rorists who cry aloud for a complete 
self-crucifixion — such a crucifixion as 
would destroy instead of regulate and con- 
trol all the lower affinities of our two- 
fold nature. This is the error which 
has produced nearly all the fanatics 
who have bewildered one-half of the 
Church on the subject of sanctification, 
and disgusted the other half by their 
wild vagaries ; and this is the error that 
built all the monasteries and nunneries 
of the Dark Ages, and which has led 
thousands to self-contempt — a crime as 
pernicious as pride ! 

"But, is there no state of grace in 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 53 



this life in which we are saved from 
evil desires ? " Yes ; but no desire can 
be evil or become a lust without the 
sympathy and concurrence of the will. 
Up to the point where a man is " drawn 
away of his own desire and enticed" 
the solicitation is a temptation ; but 
temptation resisted and foiled is nei- 
ther an evil nor a sin. We cannot con- 
ceive how any being can sin except as 
a moral agent, and we cannot see how a 
moral agent can sin aside from voli- 
tion. 

Again, we may reach the will from 
the opposite direction — from within — 
by another road. We said that there 
is another class of emotions belonoino; 
to the mind, called the moral emotions. 
These are followed by feelings of moral 
obligation. Desires are founded on the 
natural emotions, while the obligatory 



54 The Problem of Methodism. 



feelings are based exclusively on the 
moral emotions. But the desires agree 
with the obligatory feelings in being in 
direct contact with the volitive power ; 
so that the will, in making up its final 
decision, takes immediate notice of only 
the desires, on the one hand, and the 
interdictions of the obligatory feelings 
on the other ; and in every temptation 
these two classes of mental states stand 
before the will in direct and fierce op- 
position to each other. In the cravings 
of desire and the interdictions of obli- 
gation we have the basis of an inter- 
nal conflict that may be renewed every 
day and every hour. These two oppos- 
ing principles were shut up together in 
our twofold nature as it came from the 
hand of its Creator, and they are des- 
tined to renew the conflict with every 
new temptation during life. To try to 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 



55 



escape it is to try to put ourselves be- 
yond the sphere of temptation and tq 
close up our state of probation. 

As we shall show farther on, not a 
few mental states, which have been 
called the "remains of the carnal 
mind," "inbred sin," and "sin in be- 
lievers," are nothing more than the 
consciousness of this internal conflict 
which always accompanies a severe 
temptation, but is more keenly felt in 
the early part of the Christian life on 
account of the force of old habits. The 
idea that religion, at regeneration or 
afterward, does something for us that 
so destroys our natural sensibilities as 
to make them no longer susceptible of 
being " enticed " by evil, has been the 
source of untold agony among those 
who have tried to reach such a state. 
I have known more than one mind de- 



56 



The Problem of Methodism. 



throned by a failure to reach this im- 
possible state. 

It is time that the Christian world, 
and especially all Christian teachers, 
were learning that whatever grace does 
for us is done according to the fixed 
laws of the mind, and not by setting 
these laws aside or by destroying any 
part of our twofold nature. For the 
want of recognizing this fact many 
have been led to believe that they had 
the " former corruption of the heart re- 
maining in them and striving for the 
mastery," when in reality they had 
only "suffered, being tempted," as did 
their divine Master before them. The 
remedy in all such 'cases is not to be 
found in the conclusion that sin is una- 
voidable, nor in the idea that regenera- 
tion is a " partial renovation," leaving a 
"residue of sin within us," but in re- 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 57 



jecting the temptation. These sensi- 
bilities, through which the temptation 
makes its approach, belong to and are 
inseparable from the constitution of 
man. The fact that we are commanded 
to " make no provision for the flesh, to 
fulfill the desires thereof," is proof pos- 
itive that the flesh is not to be so cru- 
cified as to destroy its susceptibility of 
being " enticed; " for without that sus- 
ceptibility we could not be tempted of 
evil. And the fact that we may be 
"tempted without sin" is proof that 
the stirrings of the emotions and the 
enkindlings of the desires, aside from 
the concurrence of the will, are not sin- 
ful ; neither are they any proof that the 
" former corruptions of the heart re- 
main in those who are regenerated." 

Prof. B. B. Edwards says : " To say 
that all excitement of these suscepti- 



58 



The Problem of Methodism. 



bilities is itself sin is to say that there 
is no difference between voluntary and 
involuntary desires; it is to say that 
sin is unavoidable. To admit, however, 
that the excitement of these suscepti- 
bilities is not in itself a sin and, unless 
they be indulged by the will, leaves the 
being as holy as ever, is merely to ad- 
mit that there is such a thing possible 
as the temptation of a being who re- 
mains sinless." 

St. James says: "Let no man say 
w T hen he is tempted, I am tempted of 
God : for God cannot be tempted with 
evil, neither tempteth he any man : but 
every man is tempted, when he is drawn 
away of his own desire and enticed. 
Then when desire hath conceived it 
bringeth forth sin." (James i. 13, 14, 
15.) In this delicate figure St. James 
represents desire, even under entice- 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 59 



ment, as preserving virgin purity until 
defiled by volition. 

We now have the key to unlock the 
mysteries of the most obscure and dif- 
ficult passages in Mr. Wesley's works 
— especially that mysterious sermon on 
"Sin in Believers." But we must de- 
fer the investigation of that sermon 
until the next chapter. There are ex- 
pressions in other books, which may be 
noticed now, which the authors would 
never have made if they had under- 
stood the twofold nature of man and the 
philosophy of temptation. 

Dr. J. Dempster says : " Regenera- 
tion admits of controlled tendencies to 
sin; entire sanctification extirpates 
those tendencies." 

Now these "controlled tendencies to 
sin " in a regenerated soul are nothing 
more than a consciousness of the natu- 



60 



The Problem, of Methodism. 



ral " desires being drawn out and en- 
ticed," which, according to St. James, 
is the very essence of temptation. To 
" extirpate these tendencies " would 
simply destroy man's essential nature, 
and put him where he "could not be 
tempted of evil " — a perfection which 
belongs to God, and not to man. 

Dr. D. Curry says : " This carnal 
mind survives the work of regeneration, 
and is often actively rebellious in the 
hearts of real Christians." The learned 
doctor would hardly have said that if 
he had taken off his theological spec- 
tacles when he read Paul on the "car- 
nal mind " arid the " spiritually mind- 
ed," "the natural man" and "the 
spiritual man," "the old man" and 
"the new man." That "real Chris- 
tians " often feel the uprisings of desire 
creating a fierce conflict within is very 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 



61 



true; even the holy "Jesus suffered, 
being tempted." But no man was ever 
a "real Christian" and had the "car- 
nal mind in his heart" at the same 
time. To say that the " carnal mind 
survives the work of regeneration" is 
to say that a regenerated man is not 
reconciled to God, " because the carnal 
mind is enmity against God;" and 
wherever it exists it exists in a state of 
" active rebellion," for "it is not subject 
to the law of God, neither indeed can 
be." Hence, regeneration either "de- 
stroys the body of sin" — "the carnal 
mind" — -or else it fails to reconcile us to 
God. This " carnal mind " is the " law 
of sin and death that reigns in the un- 
regenerate," and from which, Paul af- 
firms, " the law of the Spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus makes us free;" and "if 
the Son make you free, you shall be free 



62 



The Problem of Methodism. 



indeed: " but " if any man have not this 
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, he is none 
of his." If Paul had written the sixth 
and eighth chapters of Romans to over- 
throw the " residue theory of regenera- 
tion," he could not have made his ar- 
guments stronger or his points clearer. 

Dr. Luther Lee says : " There is still 
a warfare within ; there will be found 
an opposing element in the sensibilities 
of the soul, which, though it no longer 
controls the will, often rebels against it 
and refuses to obey it. . . . This 
must be brought into harmony with the 
sanctified will before the whole soul can 
be said to be sanctified. When this 
work is wrought, then the war within 
will cease." 

Now the Doctor's "warfare within" 
— his " opposing element in the sensi- 
bility of the soul " — is the very essence 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 



63 



of temptation, and is realized to a great- 
er or less degree in every solicitation to 
evil ; it was thus that " Christ suffered, 
being tempted." Hence, to destroy this 
''sensibility of the soul," so that the 
" war within will cease," is to put us be- 
yond the susceptibility of being tempt- 
ed. Hence, Dr. Knapp truly says : 
" The desires of man are not in them- 
selves and abstractly considered sinful, 
for they are deep laid in the constitu- 
tion which God has given to human nat- 
ure; and they arise in man involunta- 
rily, and so far cannot be imputed to 
him." And Prof. Stuart goes farther 
and says : " With the deepest reverence 
I say it: The Lord Jesus Christ himself 
had a susceptibility of feeling the power of 
enticement to sin, like that which Adam 
had before the fall. If not, then he did 
not really and truly take on him human 



64 The Problem of Methodism. 



nature. The fact that such a state of 
susceptibility belonged to Adam in his 
primitive state shows that it belongs 
to human nature in its perfect probation- 
ary state" (" Bib. Repos.," 1839.) An- 
other able divine has said : " It was in 
this way that the temptation of Christ 
caused suffering ; he suffered from the 
force of desire. Though there was no 
hesitation whether to obey or not, no 
strife in the will, yet in the act of mas- 
tery there was pain. There was self-de- 
nial; there was obedience at the ex- 
pense of tortured natural feeling; 'Jesus 
suffered, being tempted/ He 'was 
tempted like as we are; ' remember this, 
for the way in which some speak of the 
sinlessness of Jesus reduces all his suf- 
fering to physical pain, destroys the 
reality of temptation, reduces that glo- 
rious heart to a pretense, and converts 



The, Twofold Nature of Man. 65 



the whole of his history into a mere fic- 
titious drama, in which scenes of trial 
were represented, not felt! " 

Once more : Rev. Wm. Bramwell, in 
a letter to a friend, says : "An idea is 
going forth that when we are justified 
we are entirely sanctified, and that to 
feel evil nature after justification is to 
lose pardon. You may depend upon it, 
this is the devil's great gun. We shall 
have much trouble with this, and I am 
afraid we cannot suppress it." 

The above paragraph is a remarkable 
utterance in itself; but to see the use 
that certain writers have made of it is 
still more remarkable. Now the phrase, 
" to feel evil nature after justification is 
to lose pardon," is exceedingly equivo- 
cal. If he means by " feeling evil nat- 
ure " that the justified believer's nature 
has become evil by voluntary yielding 



66 The Problem of Methodism. 



to temptation, then there can be no con- 
troversy about "pardon being lost." 
But if he means by "feeling evil nat- 
ure" the susceptibility of feeling en- 
ticement to sin, then, so far from that 
forfeiting pardon, no state of grace in 
this life will free us from that suscepti- 
bility. So the "deviVs great gun" is 
spiked by drawing the line between 
temptation and sin — between the sus- 
ceptibility to feel enticement to evil and 
the will yielding to the solicitation. 
From the above extract from Mr. 
Bramwell's letters, and one or two re- 
marks of Mr. Wesley, we believe if 
those who contended in that day that 
regeneration and sanctification are co- 
etaneous had drawn the line between 
temptation and sin — had drawn it clear- 
ly and sharply — then the "residue the- 
ory" would never have been so gener- 



The Twofold Nature of Man. 



67 



ally received. The truth is, both schools 
of theologians of that day frequently 
confounded temptation and sin. The 
one class called it " inbred sin," the "re- 
mains of the carnal mind," which, said 
they, does not forfeit pardon, but makes 
a " second change necessary." The 
other class contended that sin was sin, 
and that where sin actually existed 
pardon was forfeited. They were both 
right and both wrong. Every sin after 
justification forfeits pardon, but temp- 
tation is not sin. There are thousands 
of cases where not only a " second 
cleansing" is necessary, but a third, a 
fourth, and, in some cases, one hundred 
"cleansings" and "blessings" will be 
received during life; but in all such 
cases the "foundation for repentance" 
and a "second cleansing" originated 
"from dead works" and "defiled gar- 



68 



The Problem of Methodism. 



merits," and the loss of their "first 
love," and not because "regeneration 
is a partial renovation " — all of which 
will be made clear as we advance in 
this investigation. But having capt- 
ured and spiked the "devil's great gun, 11 
we will stop and rest, and renew the 
battle in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER III. 
"Sin in Believers." 

Our respect for Mr. Wesley is pro- 
found. He did more than any other 
one man to clear up the muddy theolo- 
gy of the Dark Ages. If he failed to 
harmonize his theory of the divine life 
at some points, he did more than any 
other man of modern times — Luther not 
excepted — to quicken that life in the 
souls of men. When he " saw, from 
reading the Bible, that he could not be 
saved without holiness," if he had ex- 
purgated the "residue theory of regen- 
eration " from Ms Creed, as he finally ex- 
purgated it from the Creed he prepared 
for the Methodist Church of America, 
his body of divinity would have been 

the most harmonious and Biblical ever 

(69) 



70 



The Problem of Methodism. 



given to the world. But that " dead fly 
in his pot of precious ointment" has 
been the source of confusion in doctrine 
and experience through all the history 
of Methodism. None but those who 
have read his "Journals" for that ex- 
press purpose have any correct idea of 
the amount of trouble and confusion this 
"residue theory" brought upon Mr. 
Wesley. A few, and only a few, know 
something of the magnitude of the 
trouble and confusion it has introduced 
into the theology and experience of 
American Methodism ; and we fear the 
end is not yet. 

As much as Mr. Wesley wrote, he 
never wrote any thing so at war with 
the fundamental principles of the divine 
life, as taught and explained by himself 
and set forth in the Word of God, as 
what he wrote in defense of "Sin in 



"Sin in Believers" 



71 



Believers." Starting from the stand- 
point of the Mnth Article of the Church 
of England, instead of the Bible, he 
failed to see that all the mental states 
he describes, as well as the Scripture 
texts he quotes, can be accounted for 
and explained without adopting the 
" residue theory." Wo one can careful- 
ly read the first part of the sermon on 
" Sin in Believers " without being im- 
pressed with the fact that Mr. Wesley, 
more under the influence of the " re- 
mains of High-churchism " than under 
a consciousness of the "remains of the 
carnal mind," regarded the "residue 
theory" as being settled by Church au- 
thority; and, as a loyal son of the Church, 
he went to work to defend this dogma 
(against the teachings of Count Zinzen- 
dorf) by appealing to the canons of the 
Church, the Fathers, and such Scripture 



72 



The Problem of Methodism. 



texts as might bear such application. 
If any thing had quietly led him to 
suspect that a great error was couched 
in this dogma of the Church he would 
have rejected it, as he did the dogmas 
of "apostolic succession" and "bap- 
tismal regeneration.' ' We are con- 
firmed in this opinion by the fact that 
Mr. Wesley did finally reject this dogma 
so far as to cut it out of the Articles of 
Faith prepared for the Church to be organ- 
ized in America ! 

But to return: While Mr. Wesley 
was intensely engaged in reviving prim- 
itive Christianity as a living power in 
the soul — preaching holiness of heart 
and life everywhere he went — Messrs. 
Bell, Maxfield, and others in the Society 
in London came forward and testified 
that they had found this Bible holiness, 
having received " sanctification " as a 



"Sin in Believers" 



73 



"second change." As this opened the 
way to reach the great object for which 
he groaned (Bible holiness), without col- 
liding with the Ninth Article of the 
Church, Mr. Wesley accepted the testi- 
mony of these witnesses on the one 
hand, and the "residue" dogma of the 
Church on the other hand, and thus he 
was committed to the "residue theory 
of regeneration" and the "second 
change theory of sanctification ; " and 
his sermons on " Sin in Believers " and 
"The Repentance of Believers " were an 
earnest effort of a great mind and a 
ripe scholar to harmonize these two 
theories with Christian experience and 
the teaching of the Bible. But he 
failed; and if John Wesley failed, there 
must be a great error hid away in one 
or both of these "theories." 

To see such a man as Mr. Wesley — 



74 The Problem of Methodism. 

learned, clear, and logical on all other 
subjects — struggling, floundering, first 
on this side, now on that side of his 
subject, is one of the saddest scenes in 
the life of that great man. Have I 
made it too strong? Let us see. On 
this side he says : " We allow that the 
state of a justified person is inexpress- 
ibly great and glorious. . . . He 
is created anew in Christ Jesus ; he is 
washed ; he is sanctified. His heart is 
purified by faith ; he is cleansed from the 
corruption that is in the world." " To 
be born again is to be inwardly changed 
from all sinfulness to all holiness." Now 
on the other side he says : " If there be 
no such second change after justification, 
. . . then we must be content, as 
well as we can, to remain full of sin till 
death; and, if so, we must remain guilty 
till death, continually deserving punish- 



"Sin in Believers." 



75 



ment." Now, I submit that any "the- 
ory'' of the divine life that involved 
such a man as Mr. Wesley in such ab- 
surdities and self-contradictions as the 
above must be at war with reason, 
common sense, and the Word of God ! 

There is much in the writings of 
Wesley, Fletcher, Clarke, and Watson 
which will quadrate with the Ninth Ar- 
ticle of the Church of England, from 
which stand-point they all wrote ; but I 
thank God from the depths of my soul 
that this "residue" dogma was never 
in the Articles of Faith of either branch 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
America. "But it is in our standard 
works on theology." True; and it is 
in a great many more that are not 
" standard works ; " but it is equally 
true that all these " standard authors," 
in defining the new birth, have admitted 



76 



The Problem of Methodism. 



and affirmed every thing we contend 
for in regeneration. Hence, we not only 
have our Articles of Faith on our side, 
but, if the language of the Fathers — 
the authority of the "standards" — is 
worth any thing, it is worth as much to 
us as to those who hold to the " residue 
theory." When doctors and masters 
differ the pupils can take either side. 
If Mr. Wesley and the other Fathers 
of Methodism adopted a "theory" 
which they could not harmonize with 
itself, nor reconcile with the plain teach- 
ing of the Word of God, nor with their 
own expositions of that Word — exposi- 
tions given by them when they were 
searching for the mind of the Spirit, as 
expressed in the language of the text 
in the light of the context — shall we 
adopt the said "theory" or decide with 
the Bible and the unbiased expositions 



" Sin in Believers 77 



of the Bible given by these aforesaid 
Fathers ? One had about as well go to 
our Articles of Faith, after Mr. Wesley 
completed his work of expurgation, to 
find the "residue theory," as to search 
for it in Clarke's " Commentary " and 
Wesley's "Notes on the New Testa- 
ment." Mr. Wesley's sermons on " Sin 
in Believers " and the " Repentance of 
Believers " were both written and pub- 
lished under peculiar circumstances, to 
meet the follies and excesses of Bell, 
Maxfield, and their followers. Dr. J. T. 
Crane, who has looked up all the facts 
and dates, says : " Bell and the other 
enthusiasts professed to have become 
so holy that they were out of the reach 
of temptation, and denounced all who 
failed to attain the same fancied heights. 
Not content with a ' second' work of 
grace, by which, as they claimed, their 



78 The Problem of Methodism. 



hearts were wholly purified from evil 
tempers, they began to profess a 'third,' 
by which their minds, as they said, were 
lifted above the reach of evil thoughts. 
Wesley's sermon on 4 Sin in Believers 1 , 
was designed to be a refutation of these 
unscriptural notions." Yet, in reading 
the books and periodicals published in 
this country in the interest of the " res- 
idue theory," one would almost be led 
to conclude that when " our standards " 
are referred to, one or the other of 
these sermons is the document intended. 
Such importance being given to these 
two sermons, it becomes necessary in 
this investigation to give them a thor- 
ough examination. But before I begin 
this analysis let me call attention to 
two significant historical facts. First, 
in 1784, only seven years before his 
death, Mr. Wesley rejected the "resi- 



"Sin in Believers." 



79 



due theory " so far as to cut it out of 
our Articles of Faith. Second, in 1785, 
one year later, he published his sermon 
on " Perfection, " in which he says not 
a word about " inbred sin" or "the 
seeds of sin in believers." Add a third 
fact: In 1763, over twenty-eight years 
before his death, he published his ser- 
mon on " Sin in Believers," under the 
peculiar circumstances already de- 
scribed. I leave these facts with the 
reader for the present. 

I have selected four paragraphs from 
the two sermons referred to; and as 
these paragraphs have been transcribed 
into all the books and periodicals print- 
ed in the interest of the u residue theo- 
ry of regeneration" and the "second 
change theory of sanctification ; " and 
as these paragraphs state these two 
theories as strongly as language can — 



80 The Problem of Methodism. 



being the key-note of all the modern 
writers of this school — I hope their se- 
lection will be satisfactory. After we 
have examined them in the light of the 
facts brought out in the last chapter, 
we will examine proof-texts. 

Mr. Wesley says: (1) "That [justi- 
fied] believers are delivered from the 
guilt and jpoioer of sin we allow ; that 
they are delivered from its being we 
deny." (2) " Christ indeed cannot 
reign where sin reigns; neither will he 
dwell where any sin is allowed. But 
he is and dwells in the heart of every 
believer who is fighting against all sin, 
although the heart be not yet purified." 
(Ser. XIII.) 

What Mr. Wesley means by the u be- 
ing of sin " and a "heart not yet puri- 
fied" is the "infection of our nature," 
which the Ninth Article says "remains 



"Sin in Believers." 



81 



in them that are regenerated. . . . 
And although there is no condemnation 
for them that believe, yet this corruption 
hath of itself the nature of sin. 11 Hence, 
Mr. Wesley calls it "inbred sin," in- 
dwelling sin," the " being of sin." Paul 
calls it "the old man," "body of sin," 
" sin that dwelleth in " the " carnal" or 
"natural man," "the law of sin which 
was in my members," when he "was 
carnal, sold under sin," "the law of sin 
and death," and "the carnal mind." 
Now the difference between Paul and 
the Ninth Article of the Church of 
England is that Paul used every one of 
these terms to describe the condition of 
the unregenerated man, while the Ninth 
Article applies them to the regenerated 
believer; and Mr. Wesley, like a loyal 
Churchman, followed the Article of 

Faith instead of Paul ! And hundreds 
6 



82 The Problem of Methodism. 



in this country have followed Mr. Wes- 
ley! The difference between St. Paul 
and Mr. Wesley is that Paul says that 
"the old man is crucified," the "body 
of sin is destroyed," and that we are 
" made free from the law of sin and 
death," when we "put off the old man 
and put on the new man, which, accord- 
ing to the divine j>attern, is created in 
righteousness and true holiness ; " while 
Mr. Wesley says that " if there be no 
second change after justification, then we 
must remain full of sin until death! " In 
the sixth chapter of Romans Paul 
teaches clearly that the normal state of 
the divine life in the soul includes or 
presupposes a " crucifixion of the old 
man," a "destruction of the body of 
sin," and a "death to sin." This is so 
clearly his meaning that Dr. A. Clarke 
says: "The man who has received 



"Sin in Believers.' 9 



83 



Christ Jesus by faith and has been 
made a partaker of the Holy Spirit has 
had his old man destroyed, so that he 
is not only justified freely from all sin, 
but wholly sanctified!" In Romans 
viii. 1-4 Paul, in describing the re- 
sults of justifying faith, says : " The law 
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 
made me free from the law of sin and 
death." It is so clear that Paul here 
teaches that justification is immediately 
followed by entire sanctification that Dr. 
Clarke says : " The gospel pardons and 
sanctifies; the carnal man, laboring un- 
der the overpowering influence of the 
sin of his nature, ... is first free- 
ly justified — he feels no condemnation ; 
he is fully sanctified — he walks not 
after the fiesh, but after the spirit!' 

Again Mr. Wesley says: (3) " In : 
deed, this grand point that there are 



84 The Problem of Methodism. 

two contrary principles in believers — 
nature and grace, the flesh and spirit — 
runs through all the Epistles of St. 
Paul — yea, through all the Holy Script- 
ures: almost all the directions and ex- 
hortations therein are founded on this 
supposition, pointing at wrong tempers 
or practices in those who are, notwith- 
standing, acknowledged by the inspired 
writers to be believers." (Ser. XIII.) 

The first point we notice in this par- 
agraph is : the facts do not sustain the 
inferences. The fact that "there are 
two contrary principles in believers — 
nature and grace, the flesh and spirit" 
— does not sustain the inference that 
there is "sin in believers;" for Christ 
had " nature and grace, the flesh and 
spirit" in him, or else he was not truly 
a man. The fact that the gospel pro- 
poses to "destroy the body of sin" to 



"Sin in Believers. 1 ' 



85 



"crucify the old man" (which is inbred 
sin itself) does not sustain the inference 
that one of our two natures must be de- 
stroyed. Any one can see that the 
work proposed in this " second change " 
is to destroy "nature" and leave 
"grace," to destroy the "flesh" and 
leave the " spirit; " to deny this would 
be to make Mr. Wesley write nonsense ! 

Of course " almost all the directions 
and exhortations in Holy Scripture are 
founded upon the supposition that nat- 
ure and grace, the flesh and spirit are 
in believers;" for if regeneration, or 
sanctification either, " destroyed the 
nature or flesh of a believer," then 
there would be no need of either " di- 
rections or exhortations," for said be- 
liever would then be no longer exposed 
to the temptation of " making provis- 
ion for the flesh," or any other tempta- 



86 The Problem of Methodism. 



tion. But to say that "Christ will 
dwell in a heart not yet purified," and 
that those who are " indulging wrong 
tempers and practices are nevertheless 
justified believers " — to say all this, and 
more, in order to make occasion for a 
" second change," is to put the " residue 
theory of regeneration " and the " sec- 
ond change theory of sanctification " on 
a sandy foundation indeed ! 

Once more. Mr. Wesley says : (4) 
" By all the grace given at justification, 
though we watch and pray ever so 
much, we cannot wholly cleanse either 
our hands or our hearts. Most sure we 
cannot, till it please our Lord to speak 
to our hearts again, to speak the second 
time, 4 Be clean ! ' and then only the 
leprosy is cleansed ; then only the evil 
root, the carnal mind, is destroyed, and 
inbred sin subsists no more. But if 



"Sin in Believers." 



87 



there be no such second change after jus- 
tification, . . . then we must be 
content, as well as we can, to remain 
full of sin till death; and, if so, we must 
remain guilty till death, continually de- 
serving punishment ! (Ser. XIV.) 

This is a remarkable paragraph in 
many respects, but mainly in that it is 
the only place in which Mr. Wesley ad- 
mits that " Sin in Believers " involves 
"guilt" and "deserves punishment!" 
How a man can be "full of sin and guilt, 
so as to deserve punishment" and be in a 
"justified state" at the same time, is be- 
yond my comprehension, And yet to say 
that such a man has forfeited his justi- 
fication and needs this second change 
to re-ihstate him is to give up the "res- 
idue theory of regeneration " and the 
" second change theory of sanctifica- 
tion!" Of these alternatives I have 



88 



The Problem of Methodism. 



chosen the latter. But a state of guilt 
and justification can be reconciled about 
as easily as to conceive how the " carnal 
mind" can exist in a regenerated be- 
liever and remain there " till it please 
the Lord to speak again, to speak the 
second time, ' Be clean ! * Will the 
Christian world never learn that the 
mind God gave to man in creation is 
the same mind that he carries with him 
forever? and that the " carnal mind" is 
nothing more than this same mind un- 
der the control of our fleshly nature— 
"the course of carnal thinking?" and 
that all that is necessary to " destroy the 
carnal mind " is to " renew us in the di- 
vine image" and take this same mind 
from under the control of this fleshly 

*We have already shown that regeneration 
either destroys the " carnal mind/' or else it fails 
to reconcile us to God. 



"Sin in Believers" 



89 



nature and put it back under the control 
of the Holy Spirit and our renewed 
spiritual nature, so that we will "walk 
not after the flesh but after the Spirit ? " 
And will learned theologians never 
learn that in this work of "transform- 
ing and renewing the mind," neither 
one of our two natures is destroyed? 
that the "old man/' the "body of sin," 
"inbred sin," and the "carnal mind," 
all mean the same thing in Paul's psy- 
chology ? and that the " old man is cru- 
cified," the "body of sin is destroyed," 
the "carnal mind is destroyed," and 
"inbred sin subsists no more" when 
we "put off the old man, and put on 
the new man? " 

How any man who has studied Paul's 
Epistle to the Romans can talk about 
"destroying the carnal mind in a re- 
generated believer," who has not for- 



90 



The Problem of Methodism. 



feited his justified state by " walking 
after the flesh," is a mystery I cannot 
understand; for no one can be "born of 
the Spirit " without becoming " spiritu- 
ally minded," and Paul shows conclu- 
sively that no one can be " carnally 
minded" and " spiritually minded" at 
the same time. There is no half-way 
house on this "Appian Way" to the 
spiritual kingdom. Even Mr. Wesley 
has said: "That which is born of the 
Spirit is spiritual, heavenly, divine, like 
its Author. " To be born again is to 
be inwardly changed from all sinfulness to 
all holiness." This point cannot be 
evaded by using the term, " the remains 
of the carnal mind," for there is noth- 
ing to remain." Man has but one mind, 
and that mind is either carnal or spir- 
itual, according as he "walks after the 
flesh " or " after the Spirit." If a man 



"Sin in Believers." 



91 



can walk in opposite directions at the 
same time, then he can be "carnally 
minded " and "spiritually minded" — 
then he can be a "justified believer" 
and be "full of sin and guilt" at the 
same time ; but not till then. 

Paul's argument runs thus: There 
can be no carnal mind in those who 
walk not after the flesh, but after the 
Spirit; for they that walk after the 
flesh do mind the things of the flesh ; 
but they that walk after the Spirit do 
mind the things of the Spirit. For to 
be carnally minded is spiritual death; 
but to be spiritually minded is life and 
peace. Because the carnal mind is en- 
mity against God : for it is not subject 
to the law of God, neither indeed can 
be. So then, they that walk after the 
flesh cannot please God. But ye walk 
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, 



92 



The Problem of Methodism. 



if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you. 
Now if any man have not the Spirit of 
Christ diuelling in him, he is none of 
his.* Hence, so long as the Spirit 
dwells in the heart of a believer, and he 
"makes no provision for the flesh to 
fulfill the desires thereof," so long there 
will be no " carnal mind " in him to be 
destroved; and hence no need of this 
" second change." 

Again, if there be "sin in justified 
believers," and if "we cannot wholly 
cleanse our hearts, till it please the 
Lord to speak to our hearts again, to 
speak the second time, 1 Be clean!'" 
does it not follow that this "sin" is al- 
lowed to " remain in our hearts " under 
the divine approval? The truth is, ac- 

*In the above paraphrase of Rom. viii. 4-9 I 
have given a clearer idea of Paul's argument than 
can be given by the ordinary mode of comment. 



"Sin in Believers." 



93 



cording to the whole statement of the 
case by Mr. Wesley, this " residue the- 
ory " charges God with the folly of for- 
giving sin, the "being and corruption" 
of which he allows to "remain till he 
speaks to our hearts again, till he speaks 
the second time, ' Be clean ! We ask, 
in the name of Christianity, is this the 
best the gospel can do for fallen, de- 
praved, corrupt humanity? Let St. 
John answer: "If we confess our sins, 
he is faithful and just to forgive us our 
sins and to cleanse us from all unright- 
eousness." Yea, let Mr. Wesley himself 
answer: " To be born again is to be in- 
wardly changed from all sinfulness to all 
holiness." When defining the new birth 
Mr. Wesley always gave a Bible defini- 
tion of regeneration, but when he came 
to speak of sanctification as a " second 
change" he always became entangled 



94 



The Problem of Methodism, 



and collided with himself. This theory 
of the divine life never has been har- 
monized with itself or reconciled with 
the plain teaching of the Word of God. 
We believe, and have undertaken to 
show, that the "residue theory of re- 
generation" and the "second change 
theory of sanctification " rest upon a 
false psychology and a misapplication 
of a few texts of Scripture. Mr. Wes- 
ley was led into the one by the Ninth 
Article of the Church of England, and 
he accepted the other upon the testimo- 
ny of some of the members of his soci- 
ety in London. But "Mr. Wesley had 
scarcely left London, after receiving 
this testimony, before two of these wit- 
nesses, George Bell and Thomas Max- 
field, began to hold independent meet- 
ings, declaring that no one could teach 
the sanctified except those who were 



"Sin in Believers" 



95 



themselves in that state of grace ; and 
that God was to be found only among 
these his saints." * " These enthusiasts 
professed to have become so holy that 
they were out of the reach of tempta- 
tion, f and denounced all who failed to 

* " Maxfield carried off finally about two hundred 
members, founded an independent congregation, and 
continued to minister to them for twenty years, and 
then died. Bell turned prophet, and declared that 
the world would come to an end on the 28th of 
February, 1763. When his prophecy was proved 
false by time, he not only gave up the office of 
prophet, but abandoned all pretense of religion, 
went into politics, and died an infidel." Will not 
our members who are being led out of the Method- 
ist Church by self-appointed teachers take warn- 
ing ? And will not the leaders of these " Holiness 
Conventions " pause and " go slow f " There may be 
danger ahead, around the curve! 

f This was a natural result of the " residue the- 
ory." Having mistaken the essence of temptation 
for the "motions of inbred sin," the "remains of 



96 The Problem of Methodism. 



attain the same fancied heights." Thus 
the "residue theory" gave Mr. Wesley 
trouble as long as he lived, and among 
the great and latest acts of his wonder- 
ful life, he cut out that clause of the 
Ninth Article which taught it, and gave 
American Methodists a Creed from 
which this Antinomian error was ex- 
purgated. We are now ready to exam- 
ine proof-texts. 

the carnal mind," and their "second change" (de- 
signed to remove this) failing to relieve them, then 
they were ready for any delusion that might sug- 
gest itself. 



CHAPTER IV. 
" How Readest Thou ? " 

While every Christian feels that his 
experience agrees, in the main, with 
those mental states which Mr. Wesley 
describes in his sermon on " Sin in Be- 
lievers," yet all those mental states can 
be accounted for without adopting the 
" residue theory of regeneration.'' We 
believe that every text quoted and 
every mental state described readily 
and naturally resolve themselves into 
one of two classes: First, the parties 
referred to were persons who were pass- 
ing through severe temptations, out of 
which they came as pure as ever; or, 
second, persons who had yielded to 
temptation in some form, and thereby 

forfeited their justification and " defiled 
7 (97) 



98 



The Problem of Methodism. 



their garments." To come directly to 
the point: If there be any force in 
habit, if passions and desires become 
strong by exercise and undue indul- 
gence, if the young Christian be subject- 
ed to temptation, it follows that he will 
be severely exercised by the uprising of 
his desires at the presentation of a once 
enjoyed but now renounced object. But 
to say that so long as the will rejects 
the temptation there is sin is to say 
that temptation is sin ; and if the will 
yields to say that such a one is still in 
a justified state is to say that voluntary 
transgression does not forfeit justifica- 
tion. Thus we shall find that the mental 
states which have been described as 
" sin in believers," and as being " com- 
patible with a state of justification," 
are, in many instances, nothing more 
than severe temptations, and as such 



"How Beaded Thou?" 



99 



were not sinful ; in other cases, however, 
it is equally clear that the will had con- 
curred with the solicitation, and justifi- 
cation w T as forfeited. 

Mr, Wesley himself says : " The 
more any believer examines his own 
heart the more will he be convinced of 
this — that faith, working by love, ex- 
cludes both inward and outward sin 
from the soul watching unto prayer; 
that, nevertheless, we are liable, even 
then, to be tempted, particularly to the 
sin that did so easily beset us ; that if 
the loving eye of the soul be steadfast- 
ly fixed on God the temptation soon 
vanishes away; but if not — if we are 
4 drawn out by our own desires,' and 
caught by the bait of present or prom- 
ised pleasure, then that desire conceived 
: in us [indulged] brings forth sin." 
What a pity that a man who had such 



100 The Problem of Methodism. 



clear views of the Bible idea of the new 
birth and temptation as Mr. Wesley 
should have been tied hand and foot by 
a Church dogma so at war with both. 
No wonder he drew his pen through 
that clause in preparing our Articles of 
Faith. 

But we promised to explain the proof- 
texts. " What is written in the law ? 
How readest thou?" Let us begin 
with 1 Cor. iii. 1, 2, 3. In the preced- 
ing chapter Paul draws a clear distinc- 
tion between the natural man and the 
new man, or the carnal man and the 
spiritual man; and then begins this 
chapter thus : "And I, brethren, could 
not speak unto you as spiritual [men], 
but as unto carnal [men] ; ... for 
whereas there are among you envying, 
and strife, and divisions, are ye not car- 
nal, and walk as [carnal] men?" (1 



"How Readest Thou?" 101 



Cor. iii. 1, 2, 3.) Dr. Clarke says : " Ye 
act just as the people of the world, and 
have no more of the spirit of religion 
than they. . . . These people were 
wrong in thought, word, and deed!" 
The fact that Paul speaks unto them, 
or had spoken unto them, " as babes in 
Christ," and "fed them with milk, and 
not with meat, because they were not 
able to bear it," does not prove that 
these " carnal men " were then in a jus- 
tified state; for the context shows that 
the state of babyhood refers to knowl- 
edge instead of moral condition (See Dr. 
Clarke in loco). Moreover, Paul says 
positively that he "could not speak 
unto them as unto spiritual men " — 
" Now if any man have not the Spirit of 
Christ, he is none of his;" but Paul 
could and did " speak unto them as 
unto carnal men" — and "to be carnally 



102 The Problem of Methodism. 



minded is [spiritual] death." Does not 
that settle the question that these " car- 
nal men," or, if you prefer, these " nat- 
ural men " were in a state of spiritual 
death and condemnation ? Again, Paul 
said that they " walked as [carnal] 
men;" and "they that walk after the 
flesh cannot please God." Once more: 
if these "carnal men" Avere still in a 
justified state, they were also in a sanc- 
tified state ; for Paul, in addressing this 
Church, says: "Unto the Church of 
God which is at Corinth, to them that 
are sanctified in Christ Jesus," etc. ; " ye 
are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are 
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
and by the Spirit of God." (1 Cor. i. 
2; vi. 11.) So those "carnal men" had 
either forfeited their justified state, or 
else a degree of carnality is also left in 
a sanctified believer! In either case 



"How Readest Thou?" 103 



the text (1 Cor. iii. 1, 2, 3) proves 
nothing for the " residue theory of re- 
generation" and the "second change 
theory of sanctification." 

The next proof-text is Gal. v. 17: 
" For the flesh lusteth against the Spir- 
it, and the Spirit lusteth against the 
flesh." Now every thing affirmed of 
the flesh is affirmed of the Holy Spirit 
in this verse; hence the word "lust" 
is a mistranslation in both the sixteenth 
and seventeenth verses. The whole 
chapter shows conclusively that so far 
from Paul intending to teach in this 
text (verse 17) that moral "corruption," 
or the " carnal mind," could abide in a 
regenerated believer so as to really 
"lust" after a forbidden object, he in- 
tended to teach that a " carnal " and a 
"spiritual" life were so diametrically 
opposed that we could not commingle 



104 The Problem of Methodism. 

the two, but we passed immediately 
from the one state to the other as soon 
as we tried to combine them in the same 
heart. After telling some of these Ga- 
latians that they had "fallen from 
grace " (verse 4), Paul goes on to say : 
"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 
fulfill the desires of the flesh. For the 
flesh desireth against the Spirit, and 
the Spirit desireth against the flesh, 
(and these are contrary the one to the 
other) that ye may not do the things ye 
would. But if ye are led by the Spirit 
ye are not under the [condemnation] of 
the law." (Mr. Wesley's trans. Gal. v. 
16, 17, 18.) So far, then, from these 
Galatians who were "fulfilling the de- 
sires of the flesh " being in a justified 
state and a sample of all justified be- 
lievers, they refused to "walk in the 
Spirit," or to be " led by the Spirit," 



''How Readiest Thou?" 105 



and were " under the [condemnation] of 
the law." Dr. Clarke says ; " They had 
fallen from the grace of the gospel ; and 
as Christ no longer dwelt in their hearts 
by faith, pride, anger, ill-will, and all 
unkind and uncharitable tempers took 
possession of their souls ; and they were, 
in consequence, alternately destroying 
each other. ... It was on this 
ground that Paul exhorted them to walk 
in the Spirit, that they might not fulfill 
the desires of the flesh ; as without the 
grace of God they could do nothing." 
On the seventeenth verse Dr. Clarke 
remarks : " God still continues to strive 
with you, notwithstanding your apostasy, 
showing you whence you are fallen, and 
exciting you to return to him ; but your 
own obstinacy renders all ineffectual, 
and through the influence of these dif- 
ferent principles [the desires of the 



106 The Problem of Methodism. 

flesh and the convictions of the Spirit] 
you are kept in a state of self-opposi- 
tion and self-distraction, ' so that ye 
cannot do the things that ye would.' " 
So far, then, from Gal. v. 17 teaching 
that a regenerated man may have " in- 
bred sin," the "carnal mind," and 
"lust" abiding in him, we find that the 
persons referred to in that text were 
"fulfilling the desires of the flesh;" 
having ceased " to walk in the Spirit," 
or to be " led by the Spirit," they had 
forfeited their justification, had "fallen 
from grace," and were "under the [con- 
demnation of the] law! " 

We notice next 1 Thess. v. 23 : "And 
the very God of peace sanctify you 
wholly; and I pray God your whole 
spirit and soul and body be preserved 
blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." Now, the mm total of 



"How Beadest Thou?" 107 



which Paul speaks is the whole man, and 
not of a partial cleansing of the moral 
nature at one time and a complete 
cleansing of the moral nature at a sub- 
sequent time. It is one thing to be 
"pure in heart," and another thing to 
preserve a pure heart by a holy or pure 
life ; and as Paul had exhorted them to 
"be at peace among themselves," to 
"warn the unruly," to "see that none 
render evil for evil," to " pray without 
ceasing," to " quench not the Spirit," to 
" abstain from all appearance of evil ; " 
and then prayed that they might be 
"sanctified wholly" (not holy), and that 
their "spirit and soul and body might 
be preserved blameless," it is clear that 
he had his eye on such a " consecration " 
of the whole man as would lead to a 
" blameless " life, and that such an idea 
as the "residue theory" and the "sec- 



108 The Problem of Methodism. 



ond change theory" never entered 
Paul's mind. 

The prayer of David is introduced as 
proof of the " residue theory : " " Create 
in ine a clean heart, 0 God ; and renew 
a right spirit within me." (Ps. li. 10.) 
But the necessity of a " clean heart " in 
this case did not originate in a "partial 
renovation " at conversion, but in the 
fact that David had committed a hei- 
nous sin after his feet had been taken 
out of the mire and clay, and a "new 
song put in his mouth ; " hence he 
prayed also that a right spirit might be 
" renewed in him." 

We pause here to call attention to a 
psychological fact that will give us the 
key of interpretation to those passages 
yet to be examined. We refer to the 
fact that in all such mental and spiritu- 
al activity as is put forth in the act of 



"How Beadest Thou?" 109 



giving up the world and accepting 
Christ, there is produced in our mental 
nature what mental philosophers call a 
" radical disposition." * This "disposi- 
tion " is usually referred to, in Chris- 
tian experience, as "my original pur- 
pose to serve God and get to heaven. " 
Now, as this " purpose " precedes regen- 
eration, and is distinct from the spirit- 
ual life in the soul, it follows that a 
man may retain this purpose after he 
has forfeited his justified state and be- 
come spiritually dead. Thus it was 
with the Churches at Pergamos, Ephe- 
sus, Sardis, etc. None of these Church- 
es had " denied the faith," none had re- 
nounced Christianity, none had given 
up their " original purpose to serve God 
and get to heaven ; " yet in some of 

*See Dr. Hickok's "Science of the Mind," 
page 335. 



110 



The Problem of Methodism. 



them even this "thing which remained 
was ready to die," and in all these 
Churches, except one, there was some 
open violation of God's laws which in- 
volved the guilty parties in condemna- 
tion, and for which they were command- 
ed to " repent and do their first works." 
(See Rev. ii., iii.) Now these cases are 
held up to prove that regeneration is a 
partial work, leaving a residue of " cor- 
ruption in them that are regenerated." 
In his sermon on " Sin in Believers " 
Mr. Wesley labors hard to show that 
all these backslidden members in these 
Churches were still in a justified state 
and fair representatives of all believ- 
ers who had not received a "second 
change." But Christ said to them at 
Ephesus : " Thou hast left thy first love. 
Remember, therefore, from whence thou 
art fallen, and repent, and do thy first 



"How Reddest ThouV 1 111 



works." (Rev. ii. 4, 5.) To them at 
Pergamos Christ said: "Thou hast 
them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, 
who taught Balak to cast a stumbling- 
block before the children of Israel, to 
eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to 
commit fornication. So hast thou also 
them that hold the doctrine of the Mc- 
olaitans, which thing I hate * Repent; or 
else I will come unto thee quickly, and 
will fight against them with the sword 
of my mouth." (Rev. ii. 14, 15, 16.) 

*Such were Mr. Wesley's "New Testament 
justified believers" when he was trying to prove 
the " residue dogma of the Church." Yet he wrote 
thus to Dr. Clarke : " If you can prove that any of 
our preachers or leaders, either directly or indirect- 
ly, speak against perfect love let him be a preacher 
or a leader no longer. I doubt whether he should 
continue in the Society. Because he that could 
•speak thus in our congregation cannot be an honest 
man." So much for a " theory." 



112 



The Problem of Methodism. 



To them at Sardis Christ said : "I know 
thy works, that thou hast a name, that 
thou livest, and art dead." (Rev. iii. 7.) 
Comment is unnecessary. But in com- 
menting on these three Churches Mr. 
Wesley failed to tell us that the remedy 
which Christ prescribed for these evils 
w 7 as to "repent and do thy first w T orks; " 
while he prescribed a " second change ; " 
that Christ charged their condition to 
w r rong doing and thinking, while he ac- 
counted for it upon the supposition that 
"regeneration is a partial cleansing," 
leaving a "residue of corruption in 
them that are regenerated." Mr. Wes- 
ley also failed to tell us that Christ said 
of the Church at Sardis : " Thou hast a 
few names even in Sardis which have 
not defiled their garments; and they shall 
walk with me in white : for they are. 
worthy." It is clear, then, that Mr. 



"How Beadest Thou?" 113 



Wesley's representative " justified be- 
lievers" had all "defiled their garments. 1 ' 
And we believe as strongly as Mr. 
Wesley that all such need a " second 
cleansing;" and with the Master that 
all such should "repent and do their 
first works." But we must and do, in 
the fear of God, enter a solemn protest 
against the reason assigned by Mr. 
Wesley for this " repentance " and "sec- 
ond cleansing" as being repugnant to 
the Bible idea of regeneration and sanc- 
tification. If I were going to prove 
from the Bible that a justified believer 
can " fall from grace and forfeit his jus- 
tified state," I would be willing to rest 
the whole case on the very texts and ex- 
amples which Mr. Wesley has intro- 
duced to prove the " residue theory of 
regeneration." If any one will read 
and study every proof-text which has 

8 



114 The Problem of Methodism. 

been quoted to sustain this "theory," in 
the light of Biblical psychology and a 
sound exegesis of the sacred text, all 
will be clear. 

Our position, then, is this : Regener- 
ation is a complete work and includes 
sanctification. Regeneration expresses 
the nature of the change and sanctifi- 
cation the result — moral purity. Then 
we draw a distinction between regener- 
ation and Christian perfection. Regen- 
eration is an instantaneous work result- 
ing in moral purity, while perfection is 
a growth resulting in maturity. Let us 
examine this position in the light of 
Scripture. " How readest thou ? " 

The term "regeneration" is used 
only twice in the New Testament — once 
by Christ and once by Paul. As used 
by Christ (Matt. xix. 28) it refers to 
the " new order of things at the general 



"How Readiest Thou?" 115 

resurrection." As used by Paul it re- 
fers to the work of grace in the heart 
which the Scriptures call sanctification. 
In proof of this we give the text, and 
then give Mr. Wesley's notes: "But 
after that the kindness and love of God 
our Saviour toward man appeared, not 
by works of righteousness which we 
have done, but according to his own 
mercy he saved us by the washing of 
regeneration and renewing of the Holy 
Ghost, which he poured forth richly 
upon us through Jesus Christ our Sav- 
iour, that being justified by his grace 
we might become heirs according to the 
hope of eternal life." (Titus iii. 4-7.) 

Mr. Wesley says : " In this impor- 
tant passage the apostle presents us with 
a delightful view of our redemption. 
Herein we have, first, the cause of it: 
. . . second, the effects, which are, 



116 The Problem, of Methodism. 



(1) Justification — being justified, par- 
doned, and accepted through the alone 
merits of Christ. ... (2) Sanctifica- 
tion — expressed by the laver of regeneration 
and the renewal of the Holy Ghost, which 
purifies the soul and renews it in the whole 
image of God.' 1 

Observe, in the only place in the New- 
Testament where regeneration is used 
to describe a work of grace in the heart 
it is used in the sense of sanctification ; 
and in this place Paul puts it in direct 
connection with justification. In view 
of this fact, no wonder Mr. Watson 
says : "The regenerate state is also 
called in Scripture, sanctification." In 
the Bible sanctification means " to con- 
secrate, to cleanse, to purify." Sancti- 
fication, then, is twofold ; we must con- 
secrate ourselves to God in order for him 
to cleanse or purify us from sin. Hence, 



"How Reddest Thou?" 117 



"if we confess our sins he is faithful 
and just to forgive us our sins and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness ; " 
for " the blood of Jesus Christ his Son 
cleanseth us from all sin." This all- 
cleansing blood is applied at "forgive- 
ness " by the Holy Spirit as the agent, 
and by faith as the condition : "Being 
sanctified by the Holy Ghost ;" " purify- 
ing their hearts by faith;" "ye are 
washed, ye are sanctified in the name of 
the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of 
God ; " " that they may receive inher- 
itance among them that are sanctified 
by faith." Now all this is precisely the 
same work of grace in the heart which 
Paul calls the " washing of regenera- 
tion and the renewing of the Holy 
Ghost" — "putting on the new man," 
"created anew in Christ Jesus," and 
the same as that which Christ calls 



118 The Problem of Methodism. 



"being born of the Spirit." These 
terms express the nature of regenera- 
tion, while sanctification expresses the 
result. 

In the work of salvation the guilt of 
sin must be pardoned, the pollution of 
sin must be cleansed, man's spiritual 
nature must be " created anew," "born 
of the Spirit," "renewed in the image 
of God." Now all this is the work of 
God done for us and in us ; it is all an 
instantaneous work, and in such rapid 
succession that it may be said it is all 
done co-etaneously. A partial creation, a 
partial new birth, a partial forgiveness 
is just as scriptural as a partial cleans- 
ing. Hence John declares in language 
that cannot be misunderstood: "If we 
confess our sins he is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us 
from all unrighteousness;" and he 



"How Readiest Thou? " 119 

pledges the justice and faithfulness of 
God to this divine order of things. 

In referring to the Gentiles who were 
converted at the house of Cornelius, 
Peter says : " God put no difference be- 
tween us and them, purifying their 
hearts by faith." Now if Peter had 
known that the " former corruptions of 
the heart remain in them that are re- 
generated," surely he would not have 
said "purifying their hearts," and af- 
firmed the same of the " three thousand 
on the Day of Pentecost ! " And if the 
apostles and elders to whom he was re- 
porting had been a modern " Holiness 
Convention," I think some of them 
would have called him to order ! 

When the " Lord Jesus sent Paul to 
preach to the Gentiles," he sent him 
" to open their eyes, and to turn them 
from darkness to light, and from the 



120 



The Problem of Methodism. 



power of Satan unto God, that they 
might receive forgiveness of sins, and in- 
heritance among them that are sancti- 
fied by faith." (Acts xxv. 18.) Here, 
again, " forgiveness of sin " and " sanc- 
tification " are put in direct or immedi- 
ate connection. 

When Jesus speaks our sins forgiven 
he says : " Now are ye clean through 
the word which I have spoken unto 
you" (John xv. 3) ; or, " I will, Be thou 
clean" and the work is done! The 
" washing of regeneration " is not a 
"partial renovation," leaving the "for- 
mer corruptions to remain in the heart ; " 
for "he that is washed is clean every 
whit: 1 (John xiii. 10.) Mr. Wesley, 
then, had the highest authority for say- 
ing that the " washing of regeneration 
is sanctification." 

Paul says : " Unto the Church of God 



How Reddest Thou? " 121 



which is at Corinth, to them that are 
sanctified in Christ Jesus;" "ye are 
washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justi- 
fied in the name of the Lord Jesus." 
(1 Cor. i. 2; vi. 11.) In both these pas- 
sages Paul uses the term " sanctified " 
to describe the state of grace received 
at justification. So did the apostle 
Jude when he began his Epistle thus : 
" Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, to 
them that are sanctified by God the 
Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ." 

The idea suggested by every term 
used to express the work of regenera- 
tion indicates that the inspired writers 
regarded that work as being complete 
in kind, but not in development. The 
soul " forgiven and cleansed from all 
unrighteousness " is to reach maturity 
by "abiding in Christ" and "growing 
in grace," and not by a "second 



122 The Problem of Methodism. 

change,'' unless he has "left his first 
love" and "defiled his garments." 

Those who hold that " sanctification 
is a second change to remove the cor- 
ruption left in the heart at regenera- 
tion," have a great deal to say about 
" crucifying the flesh, the old man," 
and being "dead to sin." But unfort- 
unately for their "theory," instead of 
this state of "crucifixion " and " death 
to sin " being a state of grace to be 
sought as a separate and distinct work 
after regeneration, Paul teaches clearly 
and pointedly that this state of " cruci- 
fixion and death to sin " is one of the 
marks of the new birth ; and that there 
is no spiritual life unless it includes a 
death to sin and a life unto holiness. 
" They that are Christ's have crucified 
the flesh [the old man] with the affec- 
tions and lusts" (Gal. v. 24), "that the 



"How Reddest Thou?" 123 



body of sin might be destroyed''' (Rom. 
vi. 6) ; and " being made free from [in- 
ward and outward]* sin, and become 
servants of God, ye have your fruit unto 
holiness" (Rom. vi. 22). Peter says: 
" See that ye love one another with a 
pure heart fervently ; being born again, not 
of corruptible seed, bid incorruptible, by 
the Word of God." "Christ bore our 
sins in his own body on the tree, that 
we, being dead to sin, should live unto 
righteousness." (1 Pet. i. 22, 23; ii. 
24, 25.) 

In the fifth and sixth chapter of Ro- 
mans Paul discusses the effects of the 
fall, and then the nature, the condition, 
and the result of the new birth, or re- 
generation ; and in the sixth chapter he 

*To say that Paul does not include "inward" 
or " inbred sin" in this verse is to ignore the cen- 
tral thought in his argument. (See verse 6.) 



124 The Problem of Methodism. 



makes a long, lucid argument to prove 
that the normal state of the " new man" 
includes, or presupposes, a " crucifixion 
of the old man," the "destruction of 
the body of sin," and a " death to sin ; " 
for in Paul's Epistles "the old man" 
and " the new man " are opposite terms, 
and the two things they represent can 
no more dwell together than light and 
darkness, or life and death. In the 
seventh chapter he describes the condi- 
tion of an awakened sinner as he strug- 
gles with the " old man," the " carnal 
mind," until he cries out, "0 wretched 
man that I am ! who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death?" (This 
"carnal mind," this "body of sin," this 
"old man," which I now see is a mass 
of moral corruption !) The deliverance 
comes "through Jesus Christ our Lord " 
(verse 25). Then the eighth chapter an- 



"How Readest Thou f " 125 



nounces that "there is therefore now 
no condemnation to them which are in 
Christ Jesus ; . . . for the law of 
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 
made me free from this law of sin and 
death," "hath made me feee from this 
old man," "this body of sin," "this car- 
nal mind," "this body of death," "this 
law of sin and death ! ! " Hence, so far 
from Paul teaching that the " corruption 
of our nature remains in them that are 
regenerated," he teaches that this "old 
man is crucified," and this "body of sin 
is destroyed," when we "put off the old 
man and put on the new man, which is 
created according to the divine pattern 
in uprightness and moral purity." (See 
the Greek text of Eph. iv. 24.) 

Christ said : " That which is born of 
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born 
of the Spirit is spirit." (John iii. 6.) Dr. 



126 The Problem of Methodism. 



Clarke says : " Like will beget like. The 
kingdom of God is spiritual and holy ; 
and that which is born of the Spirit re- 
sembles the Spirit ; for as he is who 
begat, so is he who is begotten of him. 
. . . This new birth implies the re- 
newing of the whole soul in righteousness 
and true holiness; . it compre- 

hends not only pardon, but also sanctification 
or holiness." Mr. Wesley says: "That 
which is born of the Spirit is spiritual, 
heavenly, divine, like its author. 
To be born again is to be inwardly 
changed from all sinfulness to all holiness." 
Now it comes to this : As Methodists, 
we must either give up the doctrine of 
"inherited depravity or we must aban- 
don the "residue theory of regenera- 
tion ; " for if depraved "Adam begat a 
son in his own likeness, after his image" 
then the soul that is " born of God," " of 



"How Beadest Thou?" 127 



incorruptible seed" "of the Holy Spirit," 
cannot be "impure" cannot have "in- 
bred sin remaining in it ; " but it must be 
"pure" "cleansed from all unrighteous- 
ness" "from all sin J" How readest 
thou ? 

Dr. Clarke says: "The 4 old man/ 
the 4 body of sin ' is the same which we 
mean by 4 indwelling sin ' or the 4 infec- 
tion of our nature,' in consequence of 
the fall." Now this depravity or 44 in- 
fection of our nature " creates the ne- 
cessity of the new birth or regenera- 
tion ;* but, strange to say, learned theo- 
logians (?) and Bishops (?) would have 
us believe, or stultify our common sense 

* This is specially true of infants ; for " our best 
authors hold that infants are born in a justified 
state, but need regeneration to cleanse the ' corrup- 
tion naturally engendered of the offspring of 
Adam.'" 



128 The Problem of Methodism. 

by trying to believe, that this " corrup- 
tion of our nature remains in them that 
are regenerated ! " Yea, the Church of 
England has baptized this error into 
her Creed and made it a part of her 
Ninth Article of Faith! Hence, the 
Church of England is consistent with 
herself and her Ninth Article when she 
holds and teaches " baptismal regen- 
eration, and the eternal damnation of 
all infants dying unbaptized!" From 
such an error John Wesley saved Amer- 
ican Methodism when he gave us an 
abridgment of the Thirty-nine Articles 
of the Church of England. But is it 
not time for our General Conference to 
appoint a committee to expunge this 
"residue theory''' from our standard 
works, as Mr. Wesley expurgated it from 
our Articles of Faith ? After discard- 
ing Sermons XIII. and XIV. of Mr. 



"How Readiest Thou?" 



129 



Wesley's as being " standard," the work 
would be nearly complete. 

Whether we call this "corruption," 
the " old man," or the "body of sin," or 
" inbred sin," or the " infections of our 
nature," or "the carnal mind," or "the 
law of sin and death," is of little conse- 
quence; but by whatever name it is 
called, Paul teaches that there can be 
no divine or spiritual life in the soul 
where it remains. To say that this 
"infection of our nature remains in 
them that are regenerated," that the 
" former corruptions of the heart re- 
main in the regenerate and strive for 
the mastery," that "the carnal mind 
survives the work of regeneration, and 
is often actively rebellious in the hearts 
of real Christians," to say all this, and 
more, is to say that Paul and Peter and 

John did not understand the effects of 
9 



130 The Problem of Methodism. 



the fall and the nature of the new birth ! 
The truth is, if a large portion of the 
New Testament had been written to 
overturn the " residue theory of regen- 
eration," and to show that regeneration 
includes sanctification, the writers could 
scarcely have been more explicit. If 
there be passages that seem to teach 
otherwise, the contexts explain the seem- 
ing conflict. And while it is impossi- 
ble to reconcile Mr. Wesley with him- 
self, yet he always gives a Bible defini- 
tion of the new birth; and if a large 
portion of his " Notes on the New Tes- 
tament," and a larger portion of Clarke's 
6 1 Commentary " had been written to 
overturn this "residue theory," the 
authors could not have used stronger 
language. 



CHAPTER V. 
The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 

SECTION 1. "INSTINCTIVE CONVICTIONS." 

It is amazing to see to what extent 
some of the modern Fathers have 
pressed this doctrine of " Sin in Be- 
lievers " in order to make room to bring 
in sanctification as a " second blessing." 
Dr. Upham,* in his "Interior Life" 
sums up "all bodily infirmities, such as 
disordered organs of sight, hearing, and 
touch," and "all mental derangements, 
such as unavoidable errors and imper- 
fections of judgment," and calls them 
all " involuntary sins — sins though that 
find no recourse but in an immediate 
and believing application of the aton- 
ing blood." So the Doctor says : " Now, 

* A convert of Dr. and Mrs. Palmer. 

(131) 



132 The Problem of Methodism. 



as such infirmities are very frequent, 
and as indeed they are unavoidable, we 
shall have abundant occasions to con- 
fess our trespasses ! " The Doctor con- 
tinues : " It is in accordance with what 
has now been said that Christians, . . . 
wherever they have fallen into such 
errors and infirmities have an instinctive 
conviction that the occasion is a fitting 
one for penitent grief and humble confes- 
sion, and they find no true peace of mind 
until they find a sense of forgiveness ! " 

We presume that the Doctor is right 
in savins: that the conviction for such 
"infirmities" as he describes is "an in- 
stinctive conviction ; " at least, we have 
no idea that the Holy Spirit ever con- 
victed anv one for such "unavoidable 
infirmities," either "physical" or "in- 
tellectual." In our experience as a 
pastor we have met a few of the Doc- 



The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 133 



tor's patients who were "filled with 
penitent grief" on account of some 
physical disorder or infirmity, and whose 
"instinctive convictions gave them no 
peace of mind." We think that all 
such theology as the above needs med- 
ical treatment as much, or more, 
than the patients for whom it was pre- 
pared ; and if some doctors of divinity 
we "wot of " had exposed the errors of 
Dr. Upham's writings twenty years ago, 
instead of recommending them to our 
people, they might have prevented 
some of the fanaticism which is now 
troubling the whole Church and hin- 
dering Methodism in her divine commis- 
sion to " spread scriptural holiness over 
these lands." Now if Dr. Upham's 
theology be true, then it follows as a 
necessary sequence that, instead of our 
infirmities and physical disorders afford- 



134 The Problem of Methodism. 



ing us an opportunity for developing 
our moral powers and Christian graces 
by a calm endurance and a perfect res- 
ignation, they will rob us of all " true 
peace of mind/' and "fill us with peni- 
tent grief ; " so that as by age and phys- 
ical decay the hoary-headed pilgrim 
gradually sinks under the weight of in- 
firmities, instead of mounting up on 
wings as eagles and soaring and talking 
with God in the land of Beulah, his 
" infirmities and involuntary sins " will 
multiply upon him, sinking him deeper 
and deeper in the "slough of despond," 
while " humble confession " becomes the 
only words of his mouth, and "peni- 
tential grief" the sole exercise of his 
pious heart! 

SECTION 2. A LARGE VIEW OF THE PLAN 
OF SALVATION. 

According to Bishop Peck in his 



The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 135 



"Central Idea of Christianity" the re- 
generated believer who has never for- 
feited his justified state must go 
through a second process of conviction, 
repentance, faith, etc., similar to that 
through which he entered the new life, 
before he can be cleansed from all sin. 
Of course this makes regeneration a 
partial work! The nine prerequisites, 
as laid down by the good Bishop, by 
which the partial cleansing of regener- 
ation is to be completed are as follows : 
"(1) The conviction produced ; (2) the 
resolution formed ; (3) the feeling neces- 
sary ; (4) the confession required; (5) 
the consecration made; (6) the faith ex- 
ercised ; (7) the prayer offered ; (8) the 
evidence received ; (9) the responsibili- 
ty taken." To the discussion of these 
nine points the author devotes eighty- 
one pages, from the reading of which 



136 



The Problem of Methodism. 



I rose up involuntarily repeating, "And 
found no end in wandering mazes lost, 
vain wisdom all, and false philosophy ! " 
If it takes that long to get from regen- 
eration to sanctification — the " Central 
Idea of Christianity " — then the Bishop 
must have had a large view of the plan 
of salvation! The difference between 
Paul and Bishop Peck is that Paul in 
every place he uses the term sanctifica- 
tion, except one, puts it in immediate 
connection with justification, and on one 
occasion he puts it first (1 Cor. vi. 11) ; 
while the good Bishop takes eighty-one 
12mo pages to get his justified believ- 
ers to his central idea — moral purity! 
Instead of St. John taking eighty-one 
pages, he puts "confession," "forgive- 
ness," and a thorough moral " cleans- 
ing from all sin" in one short verse 
(1 John i. 9). Surely Paul and John 



The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 137 



had a different theory of the divine life, 
or a different view of the " Central Idea 
of Christianity," or a shorter road to 
reach it than Bishop J. T. Peck ! 

SECTION 3. A NEW DEPARTURE. 

If Bishop Peck were the only advo- 
cate of the theory which makes regen- 
eration a "partial renovation " and 
sanctification a " second change," and 
then makes this theory the "Central 
Idea of Christianity," I would lay down 
my pen; but their name is legion, and 
still they come ! Men and women, self- 
appointed and losing sight of every 
thing else, are giving their whole time 
and energies to this "Central Idea," 
and are calling the Church — the whole 
Church— to this second process of re- 
pentance, confession, and faith. Camp- 
meetings and conventions are being 
held for this specific object, at which 



138 



The Problem of Methodism. 



no minister, elder, or Bishop is invited 
to preach or preside unless he can pro- 
nounce this Shibboleth distinctly, and, 
in some cases, none but justified believ- 
ers are invited to the altar to " confess 
their sins and find true peace of mind 
by a believing application of the aton- 
ing blood!" Thus have things gone 
on until now an organization is formed 
which ignores and decries all Church re- 
lation, and whose self-constituted preach- 
ers travel at large in this interest and 
call upon all justified believers who 
"have an instinctive conviction that 
the occasion is a fitting one for penitent 
grief and humble confession," to "come 
out of the Church " that they may " find 
a sense of forgiveness and be sancti- 
fied." Is it not time for some one to 
put the brake on this "central idea" 
car? 



The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 139 



That there is a great want of person- 
al holiness in the Church, that many of 
her members have " left their first love," 
and others have " defiled their gar- 
ments," and thereby have cause to con- 
fess and forsake their personal sins, that 
the whole Church needs a stronger faith 
and an increase of the spirit of prayer, 
I am ready to admit and deeply de- 
plore ; but I must and do, in the " fear 
of God and in the love of the Spirit," 
most respectfully enter a solemn pro- 
test against the cause assigned for these 
special organizations and the object 
proposed as being in theory or spirit 
any part of Bible religion, much less 
as being the " Central Idea of Chris- 
tianity." Leaving out the disorganizing 
spirit that has already manifested itself 
in many places, we believe that the " res- 
idue theory of regeneration " and the 



140 The Problem of Methodism, 



" second change theory of sanctifica- 
tion " rest upon a false psychology and 
a misinterpretation of Scripture. What 
a fine opportunity Bishop J. S. Key had 
in May, 1887, when he delivered that 
grand sermon on " Heart Purity" before 
the " Georgia Holiness Convention," to 
bring out some of the historical facts I 
have given ; but alas ! like Mr. Wes- 
ley, the good Bishop was committed to 
the "residue theory" and the "second 
change theory," and this fact was known 
to those who invited him to preach be- 
fore that Convention ! 

SECTION 4. SAWING OFF LIMBS. 

The advocates of the " residue the- 
ory," in order to make occasion for sanc- 
tification to come after regeneration, 
leave something in the regenerated 
heart which troubles them and their 
theory about as much as Dr. Upham's 



The Modern Fathers in T rouble. 141 



" instinctive convictions" troubled his 
justified believers. Whatever it is 
which " remains in the heart of the re- 
generate," according to their own testi- 
mony, "it is not sin proper" for that 
would forfeit pardon. Yet, when they 
come to remove this mysterious some- 
thing (which has been called by so 
many names), they prescribe "convic- 
tion, repentance, confession, faith, and for- 
giveness!" This looks very much like 
the Bible prescription for removing 
"sin proper." At least conviction, con- 
fession, and forgiveness " imply guilt, 
and guilt implies condemnation! 

This confusion is worse confounded 
by confounding sanctification with 
Christian perfection, and then trying to 
hold on to the Bible doctrine of instan- 
taneous sanctification. Take a case or 
two. In u Perfect Love," page 55, Rev. 



142 The Problem of Methodism. 



J. A. Wood says : " He who seeks the 
gradual attainment of entire sanctifica- 
tion seeks necessarily something less 
than entire sanctification now — that is, 
he does not seek entire sanctification at 
all. He who does not aim at the extir- 
pation of all sin from his heart now 
tolerates some sin in his heart now. 
But he who tolerates sin in his heart 
is not in a condition to offer acceptable 
prayer to God. 'If I regard iniquity 
in my heart, the Lord will not hear 
me.' " 

Now apply this sound reasoning and 
Bible truth to the hour of regeneration, 
and see how unwittingly Brother Wood 
has sawed off the very limb on which 
he stood as an advocate for "partial 
renovation in regeneration ! " Any one 
can see that the " some sin tolerated in 
the heart of the seeker of gradual sane- 



The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 143 



tification," and which prevented the 
Lord from hearing his prayer, is the 
identical sin left in his heart at regen- 
eration and creates the necessity for 
sanctification as a " second cleansing! " 
To deny this is to give up the whole 
theory of " sin in believers," and leave 
no cause for a "second cleansing" un- 
less justification has been forfeited by 
actual transgression, as it had been in 
David's case. 

Dr. Hibbard, as quoted by Brother 
Wood, says: "We deny that a man 
ever yet gained the victory over any sin 
while his will retained it, even with the 
most secret or tacit approbation. God 
will have thorough work ; and full sal- 
vation will never be given but on con- 
dition of entire, universal, unconditional 
abandonment of all sin and acceptance 
and approval of all the will of God. 



144 The Problem of Methodism. 

Then, and not till then, will come the 
word that speaks us whole." 

All this I steadfastly believe ; but if 
applied to the sinner seeking religion, 
then down goes the limb on which Dr. 
Hibbard stands. We would like to 
know what kind of conditions the jus- 
tified believer negotiated with the Al- 
miohtv bv which he retained the sins 
which this "second change " is to " for- 
give " and " cleanse." If " sin and cor- 
ruption remain in the regenerate," it 
remains there by the assent of the will 
of the person regenerated, or at the 
will and pleasure of the Almighty; if 
not by the consent of the penitent, then 
he is in no wise responsible for it ; and 
if by the consent of the penitent, then 
the Almighty must have agreed to the 
reservation, or he would not have "jus- 
tified him freely " and renewed him in 



The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 145 



his own image. In either case the re- 
sponsibility of this " remaining sin and 
corruption " left in the regenerate rests 
upon God, and not upon the " justified 
believer." But " God will have thor- 
ough work" in this "second change" — 
even " entire, universal, unconditional 
abandonment of all sin." The question 
now is : Can a man be justified and re- 
generated on a consecration short of 
" entire, universal, unconditional aban-' 
donment of all sin ? " and such a conse- 
cration being made, would not the 
u word that speaks us whole" come to 
him then and there? If such a conse- 
cration secures sanctification, and if no 
man can be justified on a consecration 
less than that, then surely " every one 
who is justified is also sanctified." So 
Mr. Wesley was right when he made 

the "washing of regeneration and the 
10 



146 



The Problem of Methodism. 



renewing of the Holy Ghost include 
sanctification." And Dr. Clarke was 
right also when he said : " The new 
birth comprehends not only justifica- 
tion, but also sanctification." " If the 
Spirit of God dwell in you the whole 
carnal mind will be destroyed." " He 
is first freely justified — he feels no con- 
demnation; he is fully sanctified — he 
walks not after the flesh, but after the 
Spirit." 

The more we look into that theory of 
the Christian life which makes " regen- 
eration a partial renovation " and 
" sanctification a second change," and 
then confounds sanctification with 
Christian perfection, the more we are 
impressed with its want of harmony 
with itself and the word of God. In 
"Perfect Love" pages 55, 56, Brother 
Wood truly says : " To seek a gradual 



The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 147 



purity renders the attainment of entire 
sanctification impossible. It does so 
because it excludes the conditions of 
entire sanctification. The faith which 
is the proximate condition of entire 
sanctification can be exercised only in 
connection with the renunciation of all 
sin and complete submission to God. 
Conscious confidence and conscious guilt 
can not exist in the same heart at the 
same time — the former excludes the 
latter." 

If that be true, and I believe it is 
true, then every one who has justifying 
faith has also sanctifying grace. But 
if " conscious confidence and conscious 
guilt can not exist in the same heart at 
the same time," how can Dr. Upham's 
believer, who has "instinctive convic- 
tion" be in a justified state? Are we 
to understand that " instinctive convic- 



148 



The Problem of Methodism. 



tions" are unconscious convictions, or 
that the guilt which "conviction and 
forgiveness" imply is an unconscious 
guilt? 

Again, if "faith can only be exer- 
cised in connection with the renuncia- 
tion of all sin," how can any one ex- 
ercise justifying faith without such a 
renunciation, and if "all sin be re- 
nounced " will not sanctification take 
place at justification ? 

Still again, if "conscious confidence 
and conscious guilt cannot exist in the 
same heart at the same time," how will 
Brother Wood and Bishop Peck ever 
make the " merely regenerate believer 
conscious of his remaining sin" and of 
his need of this " second change," with- 
out first destroying his " conscious con- 
fidence" or justifying faith? 

Once more : the advocates of the 



The Modem Fathers in Trouble. 149 



"residue theory" tell us that "the 
merely regenerate has remaining im- 
purity," that " regeneration is a partial 
renovation," that "the former corrup- 
tions of the heart remain in them that 
are regenerated and strive for the mas- 
tery," that " the carnal mind survives 
the work of regeneration and is often 
in a state of active rebellion," and that 
" if there be no second change after jus- 
tification, then we must be content to 
remain full of sin until death." Now, if 
this be the true state of the regenerated 
heart, is there no "conscious guilt?" 
If not, then how did any one ever as- 
certain that all this " sin and corruption 
remain in the regenerate " soul ? But if 
there be "conscious guilt," and if "con- 
scious guilt excludes conscious confi- 
dence, or faith," then all who have not 
received this "second change" are des- 



150 



The Problem of Methodism. 



titute of justifying faith ; or else " con- 
scious guilt" does not u exclude con- 
scious confidence;" or else a man may 
be "full of sin and guilt," and have 
them both removed without ever being 
made "conscious" that he needed a 
" second change ! " We insist that the 
advocates of the "residue theory" ei- 
ther abandon their theory in toto, or else 
untangle their theological hank. As 
an advocate of the "residue theory," no 
wonder Bishop J. S. Key, D.D., "ap- 
pealed for charity''' in his sermon on 
"Heart Purity," page 15. The case 
calls for all the charity that a Christian 
possesses; but can "charity hide such 
a multitude of sins " as the above cata- 
logue, all of which are said to "remain 
in them that are regenerated?" Per- 
haps the good Bishop, when he made 
this "appeal for charity," was so ab- 



The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 151 



sorbed with his theme that for the mo- 
ment he overlooked the fact that the 
author of the thirteenth chapter of First 
Corinthians on one occasion " withstood 
Peter to the face, because he was [in 
error and was] to be blamed." 

How much more rational and script- 
ural to say that every one "born of 
God" is "washed clean every whit;" 
that every one " forgiven "is " cleansed 
from all unrighteousness," "from all 
sin ; " and if any one of them now has 
"impurity/' or "is full of sin and 
guilt," it is because he has failed to 
"abide in Christ and keep his com- 
mandments," and thereby "denied his 
garments." 

SECTION 5. RESIDUE THEORY EXTRACTED 
WITH A PAIR OF BORROWED FORCEPS. 

We take Brother Wood's " unanswer- 
able argument" against sanctification 



152 The Problem of Methodism. 



being a growth, and with it we lift the 
"residue theory " out by the roots. In 
his " Purity and Maturity" page 148, he 
says: "The fact that inbred sin is a 
unit is proof that we cannot obtain free- 
dom from it by growth in grace. Like 
error, inbred sin is a simple, uncom- 
pounded element or quality, and con- 
tinues unchangeably the same, at all 
times and under all circumstances. It 
cannot be analyzed, and is not subject 
to any changes ; and in its essential 
nature it can never be made any thing 
else. Hence it cannot be divided or sub- 
divided and removed by parts" 

Now this mysterious something which 
Brother Wood calls "inbred sin" St. 
Paul calls the "carnal mind," which he 
affirms is "enmity against God," and 
which Brother Wood affirms "contin- 
ues unchangeably the same at all times 



The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 153 



and under all circumstances." Hence 
regeneration either leaves the soul in a 
state of "enmity against God," or else 
lifts "inbred sin " out by the roots ; for 
Brother Wood truly says, " Inbred sin 
can not be divided or subdivided and re-, 
moved by parts." So if "inbred sin" 
— the "carnal mind" — can not be dir 
vided and removed by parts," it is folly 
to talk about the "remains of the car- 
nal mind" in a regenerated believer. 

Again : All the advocates of the " res 
idue theory " tell us that the " sin " 
which "remains in them that are re- 
generate is not 'sin proper/ which is 4 a 
transgression of the law,' but it is the 
i remains of the carnal mind ' — the 1 cor- 
ruption of the nature of every man that 
is naturally engendered of the offspring 
of Adam ' — hence it is called 1 inbred 
sin'" Now every tyro in theology 



154 



The Problem of Methodism. 



knows that the "standards" all teach 
that the " necessity of the new birth 
grows out of the existence of this 4 in- 
bred sin;'" so that if the new birth 
does not remove this "inbred sin," this 
"carnal mind," this natural "corrup- 
tion of our nature," where is the neces- 
sity of " being born again ? " 

SECTION 6. A FEW FACTS; AND FACTS ARE 
STUBBORN THINGS. 

The "higher life" to which the re- 
generated believer is called is a state 
which is reached by a proper unfolding 
and exercise of the graces of the "new 
man," and not by a second process of 
repentance and cleansing to remove 
moral corruption left in us at regenera- 
tion. To "renew, according to the 
[original] divine pattern in uprightness 
and moral purity," is truly God-like; 
and to use these renewed and purified 



The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 155 



powers so as not to fall into sin again, 
but to "perfect holiness in the fear of 
God," is the whole duty and the high- 
est glory of man ! 

The truth is, if we make those men- 
tal states which have been called " sin 
in believers" the result of moral cor- 
ruption, which regenerating grace could 
not or did not remove, we charge God 
with arbitrarily demanding of the re- 
generated believer a life of holiness 
when he has failed to supply him with 
one of the indispensable prerequisites 
of such a life — viz., a pure moral nature — 
and we also make regeneration a partial 
work, or else exclude from it the idea 
of moral renovation altogether ! Which 
horn of this dilemma will the reader 
take? 

The great mistake of those who have 
written upon the " higher life " is found 



156 



The Problem of Methodism. 



in the fact that they have all confound- 
ed sanctification with Christian perfec- 
tion; whereas they should have made 
regeneration include sanctification, and 
then drawn a distinction between re- 
generation and perfection. In regener- 
ation the man is " created anew, accord- 
ing to the divine pattern, in uprightness 
and moral purity," and all the condi- 
tions and principles of a holy life are 
given ; in perfection we have all these 
principles unfolded in the maturity of 
the Christian graces : the one is always 
complete in itself, the other exhibits 
different degrees of development. The 
divine life realized at the new birth is 
not two, but one. This life, like all 
life, is a growth; and this growth, like 
all growth, has its different stages. 

The "residue theory" has been the 
source of no little trouble in Methodism 



The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 157 



for more than a century — the cause of 
untold difficulties to the young Chris- 
tian — the mystery of orthodox theology, 
and more bewildering to the young 
preacher than the enigmatical philoso- 
phy of the Persians ; and, if carried to 
its legitimate sequences, it would over- 
throw the very foundations of Christi- 
anity ! 



\ 



CHAPTER VI. 

fi< Regeneration a Partial Renova- 
tion." 

SECTION 1. A BRIEF REVIEW. 

We have shown that the residue the- 
ory of regeneration was expunged from 
our Articles of Faith. We have exam- 
ined those mental states and those 
Scripture texts which were supposed to 
teach that " sin remained in them that 
are regenerated," and found that both 
could be explained without adopting the 
"residue theory." We have examined 
the Bible idea of regeneration, and found 
that regeneration includes sanctification. 
We have seen some of the confusion 
and absurdities of both Mr. Wesley and 
the modern Fathers in trying to har- 
monize their residue theory with itself 
(158) 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation.''' 159 

and with the Bible idea of the divine 
life. So far we have assumed that the 
residue theory of necessity made regen- 
eration a "partial work" — a "partial 
renovation.'''' In this review we will let 
the advocates of this "theory" state 
their views in their own language.* 

Mr. Wesley says : " If there be no 
second change after justification, . . . 
then we must remain full of sin until 
death." 

Mr. R. Watson says: "In this re- 
generate state, the former corruptions 
of the heart may remain and strive for 
the mastery." 

Bishop Foster says : " The merely re- 
generate are not entirely free from sin." 

* Our quotations are taken from " Perfect Love" 
by Rev. J. A. Wood, a book consisting mainly of 
quotations from authors who hold and defend the 
" residue theory." 



160 The Problem of Methodism. 



Dr. D. Curry says : " This carnal 
mind survives the work of regeneration, 
and is often actively rebellious in the 
hearts of real Christians." 

Dr. Dick says: "Although in regen? 
eration holy principles are infused into 
the soul, yet the change produced is only 
partial." 

Rev. J. A. Wood says : "As long as 
Christians live in a partially purified 
state," etc. "This new life has exist- 
ence in * soul partially carnal in the 
mere regenerate. . . . Regeneration 
removes some sin or pollution." 

Dr. J. Dempster says : " You ask, 
then, in what does regeneration consist? 
Simply in this threefold change, viz. : 
justification, partial renovation, and dir 
vine adoption." 

We could multiply such quotations 
almost indefinitely, but the above are 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 161 

enough to show the low estimate all these 
authors put upon regeneration. Two of 
them — Brother Wood and Bishop Fos- 
ter — speak of those who have been 
"born of the Spirit," have been "made 
partakers of Christ," "of the Holy 
Ghost," "of the divine nature," "cre- 
ated anew in righteousness and true 
holiness " — they speak of such as the 
" mere regenerate." Dr. Dick says " the 
change produced is only partial" and 
Dr. Dempster says it is " simply a par- 
tial renovation. 11 There it is: "Mere 

REGENERATION SIMPLY CONSISTS IN A 
PARTIAL CHANGE, A PARTIAL RENOVA- 
TION ! " What will Mr. Orthodoxy 
think and say of all this? Surely he 
has been on a journey, or taking a nap, 
while these modern Fathers have been 
dressing up this " new man ? " With 
the "carnal mind still surviving the 



162 



The Problem of Methodism. 



death throes of crucifixion and in a state 
of active rebellion," with "the former 
corruptions of the heart still remaining 
and striving for the mastery," he looks 
more like St. Paul's "old man" crying 
out, " Who shall deliver me from the 
body of this death?" than St. Paul's 
"new man which is created after the di- 
vine pattern in uprightness and moral 
rity" 

Now this residue theory is either the 
" remains of Antinomianism in our Ar- 
minian theology," or else it is a twin 
brother thereof, and had its origin in a 
misinterpretation of St. Paul's Epistles. 
The application of the seventh chapter 
of Romans to a regenerated man is no 
greater perversion of Scripture than is 
made in trying to prove the residue 
theory by proof-texts and Scripture ex- 
amples! And the analogy does not 



"•Regeneration a Par iiai Renovation.'" 163 

stop at this; for when this "residue 
theory " gets fixed in the mind of a man, 
I had as soon try to explain the sev- 
enth chapter of Romans to an Antino- 
mian Calvinist as to reason with him. 
Hence, my object in writing these pages 
is not to convert any one who holds the 
"residue theory," but to relieve those 
who are bewildered by the absurdities 
involved in this theory, and to show all 
concerned that a man may reject the 
" residue theory " and still be in accord 
with our Articles of Faith and in har- 
mony with our "standards," so far 
as they are in harmony with them- 
selves and the plain teaching of the 
Bible. 

SECTION 2. AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY. 

We would start the young convert, 
the newborn soul, and the reclaimed 
backslider exactly on the same plane of 



164 The Problem of Methodism. 

moral purity which is claimed for one 
who has received this " second change." 
St. John's theory of the divine life is : 
" If we confess our sins, he is faithful 
and just to forgive us our sins and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
. . . My little children, these things 
write I unto you, that ye sin not. And 
if any man sin, we have an Advocate 
with the Father, Jesus Christ the 
righteous ; and he is the propitiation 
for our sins ; and not for ours only, but 
also for the sins of the whole world." 
(1 John i. 9; ii. 1, 2.) In this theory 
entire sanctification — a " cleansing from 
-all unrighteousness" — follows "forgive- 
ness ; " and the " second cleansing " was 
contingent upon such a man "com- 
mitting sin," and not because " regener- 
ation is a partial renovation — a partial 
change." 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation" 165 



Dr. T. 0. Summers truly says : " Re- 
generation is an instantaneous work — . 
it admits of no degrees, of no progres- 
sion. We can not be partially regener- 
ated — we are, or are not, born again.' ' 
As justification cancels the guilt of sin, 
so regeneration removes the corruption 
of sin. God can no more cleanse us in 
fart than he can forgive us in part 
Hence Dr. Summers says: "It is cer- 
tain that regeneration extends to our 
whole moral nature. In the new birth 
the tone, the temper, and tendency of our 
minds are changed ; the current of our 
feelings is made to run in a different 
channel, and the capacity to do the will 
of God is imparted." (Dr. T. 0. Sum- 
mers on Holiness.) 

What the Doctor here calls a "ca- 
pacity to do the will of God" is what 
we mean by the conditions and prin- 



166 The Problem of Methodism.. 



ciples of holiness, and what Paul means 
by " putting on the new man, which is 
created according to the divine pattern 
in uprightness and moral purity." 
Such a man is at one w T ith his Maker 
- — "created anew in the image of God" 
— with the " Holy Spirit to dwell in 
him and guide him into all truth." But 
while in the first stages of the Chris- 
tian life all those mental states which 
have been mistaken for the "remains 
of the carnal mind" and the "motions 
of inbred sin," will, more or less, enter 
into his experience; yet, in their origin, 
they are nothing more than the power 
of temptation made doubly strong by 
old habits; and while we fear that 
many — nearly all — yield now and then 
to temptation and commit sin — "defile 
their garments " — yet there is no moral 
necessity for it. Every one "born of 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 167 

God" might "go" right "on to perfec- 
tion " by "abiding in Christ and keep- 
ing his commandments." 

While perfection is a "higher life" 
than regeneration, yet this " higher 
life " is nothing more than the pure babe 
in Christ developed into a mature man or 
woman in Christ Jesus ; together with 
the moral character which is superin- 
duced by a retroaction from the activity 
involved in the conflict with evil in 
maintaining a pure heart and a justified 
state. "Sin is not a substance but an 
act; not a thing existing, but a thing 
done; " and moral corruption is a retro- 
action which supervenes upon this vol- 
untary wrong act, inducing a wrong state 
of our moral powers. Vice versa, virtue 
is not a substance, but an act; not a 
thing existing, but a thing done; and 
holiness is the result, or the retroaction, 



168 The Problem of Methodism. 

of voluntary right action. Now God 
supplies all the essential conditions* of 
holiness, and we are to "perfect holi- 
ness in the fear of God" "by abiding 
in Christ and keeping his command- 
ments " — by " abiding in him and sin- 
ning not." 

We should never forget that the pos- 
session of all the moral faculties in a 
pure state and the possession of holi- 
ness are two distinct things. The es- 
sential conditions of a moral agent 
being given, the self-active power of the 
will, together with the reflex actions of 
the will, are the origin and cause of all 
virtue and holiness, all sin and moral 
corruption in man. If this metaphys- 
ical and psychological postulate be con- 
stantly kept in mind, then all will be 

* These conditions are intelligence, moral free- 
dom, moral purity, and a rule of life — a law. 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation" 169 

clear ; but if it be overlooked or ignored, 
then we are without chart or compass, 
driving into a darker sea at every 
plunge ! Now, one of the indispensable 
prerequisites of a moral agent in order 
to holy living is & pure moral nature to 
begin with ; hence, God created Adam 
pure — free from all moral taint. We 
have now discovered the true philosophy 
of the Chkistian life, which unfolds to 
us the nature and extent of regener- 
ation. In arranging the plan of salva- 
tion God saw that in the very nature 
of things justification would be of no 
avail to fallen, corrupt man, unless his 
moral nature was "purified" and "re- 
newed in the image of him who created him; " 
so God provided means by which, in 
every case where he forgives sins, then 
and there he "cleanses us from all un- 
righteousness," and "creates us anew 



170 



The Problem of Methodism. 



according to the [original] divine pattern in 

UPRIGHTNESS and MOEAL PURITY." * So 

that every one who is justified is also " ful- 
ly SANCTIFIED." 

So patent is this fact, that Dr. Sum- 
mers says : " Justification without sanc- 
tification would be of no advantage to 
us. What if our sins were pardoned — 
what if we were restored to the favor 
of God ? If our hearts were not renewed 
and our lives regulated by the Spirit of 
grace, we should forfeit our justifica- 
tion as soon as received; we should in- 
volve ourselves immediately in guilt 
and condemnation. To retain the di- 
vine favor we must be born again." 
("Holiness," page 22.) Observe, Dr. 
Summers not only uses the terms 

*If any prefer, they may read "in righteous- 
ness and true holiness " — the other is a better trans- 
lation of Eph. iv. 24. 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation" 171 

"born again," "renewed," and " sancti- 
fication," to express the same work of 
grace, but he also declares that the 
work of grace expressed by these terms 
must immediately follow justification; 
else " we should forfeit our justification 
as soon as received." When Dr. Sum- 
mers wrote the above paragraph he 
knew that Mr. Wesley had said: "To 
be born again is to be inwardly changed 
from all sinfulness to all holiness." And 
that Dr. Clarke had said: "Sin must 
be pardoned, and the impurity of the 
heart washed away before any soul can 
possibly enter into the kingdom of God. 
This new birth implies the renewing of 
the whole soul in righteousness and true 
holiness." " He is first freely justified 
— he feels no condemnation ; he is ful- 
ly sanctified — he walks not after the 
flesh, but after the Spirit." 



172 The Problem of Methodism. 



SECTION 3. ANALYZING CHRISTIAN EXPERI- 
ENCE IN A PSYCHOLOGICAL CRUCIBLE. 

We are now prepared to examine the 
experience of those who have professed 
to have "obtained sanctification as a 
second change, cleansing them from all 
sin." The facts can all be accounted 
for from our stand-point and reconciled 
with our theory of the divine life. That 
they had a consciousness of inward cor- 
ruption after regeneration, and before 
they received the "second blessing," 
may be true; but whence came this 
consciousness of impurity? Did it 
originate in the supposed fact that " re- 
generation is a partial renovation," or 
in the fact that they mistook a severe 
temptation — the uprising of desire un- 
der enticement — for "the remains of the 
carnal mind," the "motions of inbred 
sin," or in the fact that they failed at 
some point to "fulfill the righteousness 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 173 

of the law by walking after the flesh, 
and not after the Spirit?" We do not 
accuse them of "denying the faith," 
nor of having given up their " original 
purpose to serve God and get to heav- 
en," but of having failed in the dis- 
charge of some duty, or having yielded 
to some temptation and of committing 
some sin; and every sin, whether of 
omission or of commission, leaves a 
stain of moral corruption. Now, if a 
sinner who has never "tasted of the 
heavenly gift" has deep compunctions 
of conscience in the hour of conviction 
and repentance, how much more they 
who have sinned against the light of 
Christian experience? When David 
was in such deep agony, and prayed for 
a "clean heart" and a "renewed spir- 
it," he was a backslider, and not a "par- 
tially renovated " convert. When Chris- 



174 The Problem of Methodism. 



tians pass through such a crucible, and 
are restored to moral purity, it would 
be strange if they did not profit by such 
an experience — especially if they begin 
to seek this restoration with the idea 
fixed in their minds that it is their 
privilege to be " cleansed from all sin," 
and then to " abide in Christ and sin 
not." But how much better for them 
if they had been told at regeneration 
that they were "forgiven and cleansed 
from all unrighteousness," being " cre- 
ated anew according to the divine pat- 
tern in uprightness and moral purity," 
and that they might go right on to per- 
fection by " abiding in Christ and keep- 
ing his commandments." 

We do not deny, but believe, that 
thousands have sought sanctification as 
a " second blessing," and that they were 
then and there sanctified — " cleansed 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation" 175 



from all unrighteousness," "from all 
sin " — but that does not prove that they 
were not " cleansed from all unright- 
eousness " when they were first "for- 
given." JSTot at all ; for according to 
John such a " forgiveness " and " cleans- 
ing" go hand in hand, and he pledges 
the "faithfulness and justice" of God 
to this order in their reception. (1 John 
i. 9.) 

We should be very careful how we 
adopt every theory of the divine life 
which may claim to be evolved from 
Christian experience. When we re- 
member that not one man in every 
thousand is capable of so analyzing his 
own mental states as to give any cor- 
rect theory of mental philosophy, it be- 
hooves us to go slow in forming a " the- 
ory" of the Christian life from data 
gathered from what men say they have 



176 



The Problem of Methodism. 



experienced ; not but what they are 
honest, but because so few are capable 
of so analyzing and classifying their 
mental states and feelings as to give 
data for such a purpose. We know as 
an historical fact that some of the first 
who professed to have obtained sancti- 
fication as a ''second change," in less 
than a week after Mr. Wesley had ac- 
cepted the theory on their testimony, 
began to testify that they had "re- 
ceived a third change or blessing which 
raised them above temptation," etc. ; 
and to meet this fanaticism Mr. Wes- 
ley wrote and published his sermon on 
" Sin in Believers." 

There is a wide difference between 
analyzing and classifying known facts 
until they crystallize into a "theory," 
and assuming a "theory" and then try- 
ing to find facts to sustain it. It is very 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation" 111 

easy to assume that "regeneration is a 
partial renovation/' leaving "inbred 
sin " and a "residue of the carnal mind 
in the regenerated heart," and then ap- 
peal to the consciousness of the average 
Church-member, and get a verdict from 
thousands in favor of conscious impurity, 
especially when learned doctors have 
mistaken the mental excitement caused 
by a severe temptation for the " carnal 
mind in a state of active rebellion!" 
But put all the facts into a psychological 
crucible and analyze them in the light of 
God's word, and we find that they were 
" cleansed every whit" when they were 
"washed in the laver of regeneration 
and renewed by the Holy Ghost;" and 
that the reason they now have a con- 
sciousness of impurity arises from a 
mistaken idea of the mental states in- 
volved in temptation, or from the fact 
12 



178 The Problem of Methodism. 



that they have " left their first love " 
and "defiled their garments." 

The old Antinomian idea, that it is 
necessary for us to sin all through life, 
and that all sins committed after justi- 
fication are to be charged up to the 
"old man," and not to the "new man" 
— -I say this old Antinomian, Calvin- 
istic idea of the Christian life has been 
greatly strengthened in the minds of 
our people by those who are always 
teaching that "regeneration is & partial 
renovation," leaving the "carnal mind 
in a state of active rebellion," and that 
all this "remaining corruption" and 
"heart impurity" is compatible with a 
justified state! We do not charge such 
teachers with impure motives, but with 
error, and a "zeal not according to 
knowledge." When holiness becomes 
a hobby, and is ridden in the interest of 



" Regeneration a Partial Renovation" 179 

an independent organization, it is time 
the Church of Christ should rescue it 
from such a position and give it its 
proper place in her teachings. I deal 
not with motives — I leave that to the 
Master — but with facts and teachings 
and their palpable influences and issues. 
I think the salvation provided in the 
gospel is a unit — entire, indivisible, per- 
fect. 

SECTION 4. OFFERING STRANGE FIRE ON 
METHODIST ALTARS— A NEW DEPARTURE. 

The reader of these pages may have 
regarded some of my criticisms too se- 
vere ; but having read every thing that 
I could find in book form and a vast 
amount of periodical literature on this 
subject, my diagnosis of the case was : it 
calls for heroic treatment. In the Texas 
Christian Advocate of October 6, 1887, 
I find an article of nearly three columns 



180 The Problem of Methodism. 



on " sanctijication as taught by John Wes- 
ley" written by Rev. A. H. Sutherland 
in reply to some brother who had dared 
to express his views and doubts about 
the " residue theory of regeneration and 
the second change theory of sanctifica- 
tion." After quoting the usual para- 
graphs from Mr. Wesley — paragraphs 
that have been quoted so much that 
some editors and proof-readers must 
have learned them all by rote long- 
ago — Brother Sutherland proceeds to 
make the following appeal and denunci- 
ation : 

"Therefore, why oppose those who 
are doing exactly what Mr. Wesley did 
and enjoined ? Why do you not do that 
way? Because you do not believe that 
way ? Then why continue in a Church 
whose most distinctive, distinguished, 
and glorious doctrine you reject ? Why 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation" 181 

come to her altars to offer your strange 
fire ? Why stand around her tables for 
your bread ? I declare to you there is 
distinctiveness in your doctrine to jus- 
tify a new Church; for there is no 
Church on earth that holds it as a tenet. 
No Church — no, not one besides the 
Methodist — believes in entire sanctifica- 
tion before death. Nor does she believe 
it to be co-etaneous with justification 
and regeneration and the new birth. 
You enjoy the distinction — which is no 
honor — of being a class, almost a party, 
in a Church which believes that which 
is not yet a creed, and of teaching that 
which your Church emphatically con- 
demns (?). Brethren, take my advice, 
suffer the word of exhortation ; retrace 
your steps, re-read your standards, be 
converted from the error of your ways 
[and then seek the second change], or 



182 The Problem of Methodism. 



quietly withdraw from oar Church with 
our tears and our prayers." 

On this remarkable appeal, denuncia- 
tion, declamation, and exhortation, so 
beautifully combined and interspersed 
with " prayers" and suffused with 
"tears," I have a few points to make. 
1. No one can analyze the document 
without seeing that with Brother Suth- 
erland to oppose the "residue theory of 
regeneration and the second change 
theory of sanctification " is to oppose 
sanctification itself. In other words, 
Brother Sutherland has things so con- 
fused that he can not draw the distinc- 
tion between rejecting his theory of sanc- 
tification and rejecting the doctrine of 
sanctification. To deny this criticism 
is to make him write nonsense ; and to 
admit the truth and justice of the crit- 
icism is to say that Brother Sutherland 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 183 

was fighting a man of straw. There is 
no use in reasoning with a man who 
can not distinguish between a certain 
theory of a doctrine and the doctrine 
itself. Hence, I have already said that 
I have no hope of converting such a 
man — no, not if I could reason like 
Lord Bacon, and exhort like Rev. A. H. 
Sutherland, and weep like Jeremiah the 
prophet. 2. When Brother Suther- 
land said that those who reject the 
residue theory " enjoyed the distinction— 
which is no honor — of being a class in a 
Church who believe that which is not 
yet a creed," did he know that we en- 
joyed both the distinction and the honor 
of being in a Church from whose Creed 
this same ''residue theory," which we 
reject, was expunged by Mr. Wesley s own 
hand*} If he did, was he not a little 
hasty when he in " tears " invited us to 



184 The Problem of Methodism. 

" quietly withdraw from the Church " for 
rejecting an expurgated theory? If he 
did not know this historical fact, would 
not an "exhortation to re-read our 
standards," and add a little Church his- 
tory and the Articles of Faith to the 
course be well timed, especially as it 
might save the good brother a good 
many imaginary " tears " by removing 
the hypothetical cause? 3. When 
Brother Sutherland said that those who 
hold and teach that regeneration and 
sanctification are co-etaneous, " are 
teaching that which our Church emphat- 
ically condemns" did he know that in 
teaching thus we were in perfect accord 
with our expurgated Articles of Faith 
as prepared by Wesley himself; that 
we were in accord with our " standard 
authors " so far as they are in harmony 
with themselves ; and that we were in 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation" 185 

perfect accord with the word of God, 
especially as that word is expounded 
in Mr. Wesley's "Notes" and Clarke's 
"Commentary?" If he did know all 
this, what did he mean, and to whom 
did he refer, when he said the " Church 
emphatically condemns" such "teach- 
ing?" And what did he mean by call- 
ing such teaching " offering strange 
fire" on the "altars" of our Church? 
But if he was ignorant of these facts, 
instead of "re-reading our standards," 
I think he had better read them. 4. 
After showing that there were some in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
who rejected his theory of sanctification, 
he asks (not in "tears"), "Why then 
continue in a Church whose most dis- 
tinctive, distinguished, and glorious doctrine 
you rejects" Reject what? The "glo- 
rious doctrine of sanctification ? " Nay, 



186 



The Problem of Methodism. 



my brother, only your theory of it — that 
is all ! Does Brother Sutherland really 
know that the " distinctive, distin- 
guished, and glorious doctrine " of gen- 
nine Methodism is "a present, full sal- 
vation from all sin, by faith in Christ" — 
thus ignoring the Romish purgatory 
after death, and the Calvinistic purga- 
tory in death, and the residue purga- 
tory of the second change theory ; and 
that in rejecting the residue theory in 
toto we are only doing for our theory of 
the divine life what Mr. Wesley did for 
our Creed. Because Mr. Wesley, as a 
loyal, consistent minister of the Church 
of England, accepted the residue theory 
as taught in her Ninth Article ; and be- 
cause Mr. Wesley struggled with the 
absurdities of this theory for forty years, 
until finally he rejected it so far as to 
expunge it from the Articles of Faith 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation" 187 

prepared for American Methodists, 
shall we now turn round and put our 
necks under this "yoke which neither 
we nor our fathers were able to bear? " 
5. But Brother Sutherland reaches his 
climax when he says, "I declare there 
is distinctiveness in your doctrine to 
justify a new Church!" There is no 
difference among us about doctrine — we 
all believe alike in the doctrine of sanc- 
tification — the only difference is wheth- 
er the Bible teaches a, full salvation from 
all sin now, or a 'partial cleansing now, and 
a complete cleansing at some future time! 
It is not sanctification, but your theory 
of it, we reject. This is not all : If any 
have "tears" to shed, they need not 
save them until we "quietly withdraw 
from the Church " and organize " a new 
Church," for that will never be. Those 
who are read up in the history of Meth- 



188 The Problem of Methodism. 



odism know that the "withdrawing" 
began, and has continued so far, among 
those who are on the other side of this 
"theory." It was George Bell, Thomas 
Maxfield, and others, who were among 
the first to profess sanctification as a 
"second change," and upon whose testi- 
mony Mr. Wesley accepted this theory, 
who were also the first to "withdraw" 
and set up for themselves. It is this 
same "class," or "party,"* who have 
"quietly," or otherwise, "withdrawn 
from the Church" in the J^orth-west 
and organized a force and sent them out 
to go everywhere and cry, " Come out 
of the Church!" some of whom have 
"made havoc among the Churches" in 
Alabama. It is this same " class," or 
"party," who have organized all the 

* I am indebted to Brother Sutherland for these 
terms. 



"Regeneration a Partial Renovation.' 1 189 

"Holiness Conventions" that are now 
operating in this country on an independ- 
ent line ! And if there ever is to be a 
general " withdrawing from the Church," 
and "a new Church organized" on ac- 
count of this "residue theory," it does 
not take a prophet to tell where the 
" withdrawing " will begin, and which 
"class or party" now "in the Church" 
will compose the "new Church." I 
thought I saw that this issue was com- 
ing before I began to write these pages, 
and my first object was to arrest this 
tendency. But Brother Sutherland has 
raised the issue while I am writing; 
but to my surprise, instead of following 
the example of Messrs. Bell and Max- 
field, he politely asks us to " quietly 
withdraw from our Church with our 
tears and our prayers ! " As this is "a 
new departure" in Methodist history, 



190 



The Problem of Methodism. 



we ask for time to consider the proposi- 
tion. In the meantime, we hope Brother 
Sutherland and all his "party in the 
Church" will read and "reread our stand- 
ards," and refer now and then to Method- 
ist history and "our" Articles of Faith.* 

* There is no article on sanetitication among the 
twenty-five articles of the Methodist creed. There is 
no allusion to the doctrine or statement as to what we 
shall believe about it. Sanctification is not a doctrine, 
but an experience, and when it is presented simply as 
purity of heart and life before God, it finds none to 
oppose it, none to cavil at it. To be holy is a duty con- 
fessed by all Christians, and it is agreed we should 
own no model or pattern lower than the Great Ex- 
emplar. While we point out men's sins, and urge them 
to put them away, none can gainsay our teachings. 
While we urge that no known sin should be harbored 
or indulged, all Christians agree with us. It is only 
when some one puts forward his theory of the opera- 
tions of divine grace, or puts himself forward as an il- 
lustration of a particular work of grace, that confu- 
sion and contradictions arise. As respects the model to 
which we should conform our lives, it is found in Him 
alone who says, "Learn of me." To any one who 
thrusts himself between us and this perfect light, 
claiming himself to be an example of perfection, we 
will say* as Diogenes said to Alexander, " Stand out 
of my sunshine." — South-western Methodist. 



CHAPTER VII. 
Christian Perfection. 

Our object has not been to lower the 
standard of Christian experience or 
holy living, but to remove some of the 
difficulties which have gathered around 
both, and to place each where the in- 
spired writers left them. We would 
start the young convert and the re- 
claimed backslider on exactly the same 
plane of Christian experience which is 
claimed for one who has received the 
"second change." As the whole sub- 
ject is usually presented, no wonder so 
few "go on to perfection," and so many 
get into trouble and confusion. Sancti- 
fication is not a growth in grace, but an 
act of cleansing which prepares the new- 
born soul to grow. It takes the moral 

(191) 



192 The Problem of Methodism. 

purity of sanctification and a growth 
in grace to mature into perfection. 
The young Christians who fail to see all 
this fail to maintain a pure heart, and 
for the want of a pure heart they fail 
to grow ; and for the want of a pure 
heart, and the growth that would follow, 
they fail to "go on unto perfection." 

SECTION 1. "GROWING OUT OF SIN." 

As the word of God requires purity 
of heart and a growth in grace, some 
have concluded that they could grow 
out of sin into moral purity. Now 
moral purity is not a question of time, 
but a growth in grace is. There is no 
such thing as a gradual growing out of 
sin ; for sin is not a thing to be out- 
grown, but an act to be forgiven and a 
stain to be washed away. The guilt of 
sin must be forgiven and the pollution 
of sin must be washed away by faith in 



Christian Perfection. 19.3 



the blood of the Lamb ; and all this is 
an instantaneous work. A full salva- 
tion from all sin is the present privilege 
of all who "believe with a heart unto 
righteousness." There is such a thine- as 
growth in unfolding the Christian graces, 
which growth results in Christian per- 
fection ; but the simple act of sanctifica- 
tion — of being "cleansed from all sin " — • 
is a work of the Holy Spirit performed 
in the "washing of regeneration." 

In the Methodist Quarterly Review for 
July, 1877, Rev. J. 0. A. Clarke, D.D., 
LL.D., truly says: "Every believer 
whose sins are truly forgiven, and who 
is begotten of God, is pure in heart, free 
from sin, and sanctified. And this sanc- 
tification is contemporaneous with the 
new creation. For ' God from the be- 
ginning (that is, from the believer's 

hearing and obeying the gospel) hath 
13 



194 The Problem of Methodism. 

chosen him to salvation through the 
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of 
the truth/ When ' old things are 
passed away, and all things become 
new,' the believer is sanctified, freed 
from sin, and ' becomes a servant of 
God/ From that moment he is one of 
the 'elect of God the Father, through 
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedi- 
ence and sprinkling of the blood of Je- 
sus Christ.' " Dr. Clarke is equally 
clear in reference to the true position of 
Christian perfection in the divine life. 
He says : " What is perfection ? and 
where does it begin ? It is relative, and 
because it is relative it begins as soon 
as the believer is created anew in Christ 
Jesus. In the new creation he is made 
as perfect in moral character as it is 
possible for him then to be. He can be 
no more or less perfect than he is made 



Christian Perfection. 



195 



at the time by the sanctifying Spirit. 
. . . Now what of Christian perfec- 
tion after the new birth ? We answer: 
It is living in obedience to the constitu- 
tion and laws of the new man in Christ 
Jesus. And what are these? They 
may be summed up in a single word, 
and that word is growth. It is 'going 
on unto perfection.' " The Doctor goes 
on to show that every thing in the Word 
of God with which the Christian life is 
compared denotes progress and growth. 
It is a " journey, a pilgrimage, a voyage, 
a warfare, a race." It is " likened to a 
grain of mustard-seed, which grew into 
a tree ; " to the " leaven which leavens 
the whole lump ; " to a " babe " which is 
to become a " man in Christ Jesus." But 
as in nature, there comes a state of ma- 
turity, and that state of maturity is 
called Christian perfection. 



196 



The Problem of Methodism. 



SECTION 2. PURITY AND MATURITY. 

We must remember that purity and 
maturity are not the same. Purity is 
the result of cleansing] maturity is the 
result of growth. The justified believer, 
the newborn soul, is " cleansed from all 
unrighteousness," is sanctified by the 
" washing of regeneration and the re- 
newing of the Holy Ghost; " but he is 
not a mature Christian, for that implies 
time, experience, and growth. The Bible 
teaches a gradual maturity; but when 
God cleanses a soul, he says : " I will ; 
be thou clean," and the work is done! 
A full salvation from all sin is the pres- 
ent and constant privilege of all who 
are in Christ and abide in him ; and all 
who thus abide in him are prepared for 
a rapid, solid growth in grace. "He 
that abideth in me, and I in him, the 
same bringeth forth much fruit." 



Christian Perfection. 



197 



The powers of the soul may be de- 
veloped and the Christian graces may 
be unfolded in a pure heart. Purity in 
quality does not exclude increase in 
quantity. "Water in a small channel 
may be just as pure as in a large one. 
A pure stream may increase in volume 
and power. Mere growth never changes 
the nature of any thing — that which is 
pure may grow, or that which is impure 
may grow." The worst sinner grows 
most rapidly in hellish passions, and the 
best Christian grows most rapidly in 
heavenly virtues and the Christian 
graces. Growth is natural ; the act of 
cleansing a soul is s^r-natural and in- 
stantaneous. Every change effected by 
growth relates to quantity or to size; 
every change effected by cleansing re- 
lates to quality or to kind. To be 
cleansed from all sin is a work to be 



198 



The Problem of Methodism. 



done by the Spirit, acting directly upon 
the soul; but to bring the Christian 
graces to the highest state of maturity 
is a work of time to be carried on to 
the day of Jesus Christ. 

The whole object of the gospel is to 
make man pure and keep him pure. As 
"inbred sin" is derived from Adam, 
the first man, so in the new birth 
righteousness is derived from Christ, 
our second Adam ; for the " new man 
is created according to the [original] 
divine pattern in righteousness and true 
holiness; " so that, " as we have borne 
the image of the earthly, we may also 
bear the image of the heavenly." 
" Now ve are clean through the word I 
have spoken unto you. Abide in me, 
and I in you." "If ye keep my com- 
mandments, ye shall abide in my love ; " 
and "he that abideth in Christ sinneth 



Christian Perfection. 



199 



not." Such is the philosophy of a holy 
life. " Whoso keepeth his word, in him 
verily is the love of God perfected.' 1 
Here is "perfect love" and the way to 
attain it and keep it. Yet Rev. J. A. 
Wood wrote a book of three hundred 
and fourteen pages to show that perfect 
love could be attained only by a " sec- 
ond process of repentance and faith 
after regeneration ; " when St. John in 
the very text where Brother Wood got 
the title of his book, affirms that " whoso 
keepeth his word, in him verily is the love 

Of God PERFECTED ! " 

SECTION 3. CONFUSION OF CONFOUNDING 
TERMS WHICH ARE DISTINCT.* 

Those who hold that sanctification is 
a " second change " have done much to 

* Of all the books I have read, " Perfect Love " 
and " Purity and Maturity," by Kev. J. A. Wood, 
excel in this work of confusion. 



200 The Problem of Methodism. 

strengthen the idea that sanctification 
is to be reached by a growth. It is 
done in this way: In order to prove 
that sanctification is distinct from re- 
generation, they confound sanctification 
with Christian perfection (which is 
reached by a growth) ; and then their 
proof-texts lead their readers to the con- 
clusion that whatever this "second 
change " may be, they are to reach it 
by a growth in grace. Purity is sanc- 
tification, and maturity is Christian 
perfection ; now think of a man writing 
a book to show that "sanctification and 
perfection are the same thing," and 
then writing another book to show that 
"purity and maturity stand forth in 
Bible teaching as distinct" and you have 
the feat which Rev. J. A. Wood has 
accomplished! The idea that a new- 
born soul may become a mature Chris- 



Christian Perfection. 



201 



tian in a moment is more than most 
minds can comprehend ; yet this is the 
case if " sanctification and Christian 
perfection are synonymous — pointing to 
the same state." And Brother Wood's 
ingenious effort to conceal this absurdity 
in his theory of Christian experience, 
by changing terms, is too glaring to es- 
cape the notice of any mind that is not 
blinded by a pet theory. 

Now the Bible theory is this : The 
newborn soul is as pure as the blood of 
Christ can cleanse it, and this babe in 
Christ is to become a mature Christian 
by growing in grace. This confounding 
sanctification with perfection — purity 
with maturity — has led thousands to 
believe that between regeneration and 
sanctification there was an indefinite 
period of gradual development, and 
that after sanctification is reached the 



202 



The Problem of Methodism. 



whole object of Christian experience 
and life was accomplished ; and all they 
have to do after being sanctified is to 
find a sentimental sofa, provided for the 
sanctified on their way to heaven, where 
they may take a seat and chant, 

"My willing soul would stay 

In such a frame as this, 
And sit and sing itself away 

To everlasting bliss!" 

or, seeing that they can not be made 
free from sin until they are sanctified, 
and believing that they can not reach 
sanctification without a life- time to grow 
in grace, they content themselves with 
the fact that they have been converted, 
and that their original purpose to serve 
God and get to heaven still remains, 
and that they intend to hold on to the 
Church and limp along somehow until 
they, become men or women in Christ 



Christian Perfection. 



203 



Jesus ; then they will " crucify the old 
man," which has held them in bondage 
so long, and "destroy the body of sin" 
which has been, as a mass of moral cor- 
ruption, fastened upon them. Thus 
thousands live either in a state of con- 
templative inactivity — a sentimental 
quietism — or in a state of spiritual dark- 
ness and condemnation for years, with 
nothing left but the memory of their 
past conversion and their original pur- 
pose to serve God and get to heaven! 

Now if all these could be made to 
see and realize that there is no Chris- 
tian life that does not free us from sin ; 
that "if any man sin we have an advo- 
cate with the Father;" that "if we 
confess our sins, he is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us 
from all unrighteousness;" and that 
"whosoever abideth in him sinneth 



204 



The Problem of Methodism. 



not" — then we mio-ht be<nn to talk about 
a "pure Churchy without sjjot, or wrinkle^ 
or blemish, or any such thing V But so 
long as a great many of our ministers 
believe and preach and publish to the 
world that the "regenerate have re- 
maining impurity," or that the " former 
corruptions of the heart remain in them 
and strive for the masterv," or that the 
" carnal mind survives the work of re- 
generation, and remains in the heart in 
a state of active rebellion," and that all 
this mav abide or exist " in real Chris- 
tians" without justification being for- 
feited, so long will the vast majority of 
those who " have been once enlightened 
and have tasted of the good word of 
God, and the powers of the world to 
come," be indifferent to the calls to a 
" higher life." The time has come when 
every true watchman upon the walls of 



Christian Perfection. 



205 



Zion must proclaim that there is no 
spiritual life which does not " cleanse 
us from all sin ; " that there is no " new 
man" unless he has been " created ac- 
cording to the [original] divine pattern 
in righteousness and true holiness ; " 
that " whosoever abideth in him sin- 
neth not," and whosoever hath sin abid- 
ing in him hath " departed from the 
living God" and " defiled his gar- 
ments ; " that " he that doeth righteous- 
ness is righteous, even as he is right- 
eous," and "he that committeth sin is 
of the devil;" and that the "higher 
life" is reached by "keeping ourselves 
in the love of God, building up our- 
selves on our most holy faith, praying 
in the Holy Ghost," and "looking unto 
him that is able to keep us from fall- 
ing," "praying always with all prayer 
and supplication in the Spirit, and 



206 The Problem of Methodism. 

watching thereunto with all persever- 
ance," "till we all come in the unity of 
the faith, and of the knowledge of the 
Son of God, unto perfect men, unto the 
measure of the stature of the fullness 
of Christ, and grow up into him in all 
things, who is the Head of the Church." 
Such is the "higher life" to which 
every babe in Christ is called, and such 
is the means by which he is to attain it. 

SECTION 4. HOLINESS— PERFECT LOVE-PER- 
FECT FAITH-PERFECTION. 

So far from it being impossible for a 
sanctified Christian to grow in grace, 
moral 'purity is one of the indispensable 
laws of spiritual life and growth. We 
have seen that regeneration includes 
sanctification — that " to be born of God 
is to be changed from all inward sinful- 
ness to all inward holiness." A soul 
that is pure possesses a nature from 



Christian Perfection. 



207 



which holiness proceeds. While holi- 
ness and perfection presupposes a pure 
moral nature, yet all the Bible teaches 
of holiness and perfection as a duty en- 
joined or a state to be reached, relates 
to the practical part of Christian life 
and experience. The Holy Spirit puri- 
fies our moral nature, and we are to pu- 
rify our lives. Hence, Paul says : " Let 
us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness 
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holi- 
ness in the fear of God." The work of 
"cleansing" and "perfecting holiness" 
is here enjoined upon us as our ivork. 
Now, no one can "cleanse" his moral 
nature; but he can "cleanse" his life; 
and in so doing, he will be " perfecting 
holiness." Regeneration, born of the 
Spirit, created anew, and sanctification, 
are all applied to the act by which 
man's moral nature is purified and re- 



208 The Problem of Methodism. 

newed in the divine image; while "per- 
fect love," "holiness," and "perfection" 
are applied to that life of obedience 
which results in Christian maturity. A 
failure to observe the distinction be- 
tween what God does for us and what 
we are to do for ourselves has created 
no little confusion among those who 
have written upon the " higher life." 
The one is the divine side of the Chris- 
tian life, the other is the human side. 
As repentance toward God and faith in 
our Lord Jesus Christ is sure to be fol- 
lowed by the "forgiveness of our sins" 
and a " cleansing from all unrighteous- 
ness," so obedience is sure to be fol- 
lowed by a pure life, a growth in grace, 
and a maturity of the fruits of the 
Spirit. 

If we are not mistaken in the signs 
of the times, there is a growing tenden- 



Christian Perfection. 



209 



cy to run the " higher life " into a state 
of mere contemplation. This is one of 
the legitimate results of that theory 
which confounds sanctification with per- 
fection — purity with maturity. It is 
easy to comprehend how a soul may be 
" cleansed from all sin " in a moment, 
for that is the work of the Spirit; but 
how a babe in Christ can become a man 
in Christ Jesus by a single act of faith 
is not so easily comprehended; and 
where such a theory is lodged in the 
mind it paralyzes all Christian activity, 
and produces an abnormal state of mere 
contemplation. 

Our proper work as " new creatures" 
is to " abide in Christ and keep his 
commandments " — to " grow in grace 99 
and "go on to perfection." Hence 
every itinerant preacher is asked at the 

door of the Conference: "Have you 
14 J 



210 



The Problem of Methodism. 



faith in Christ? Are you going on to 
perfection? Do you expect to be made 
perfect in love in this life? Are you 
groaning after it?"* The way to ob- 
tain "perfect love" is obedience: 
" Whoso keepeth his word, in him ver- 
ily is the love of God perfected." The 
way to " perfect holiness " is to " cleanse 
ourselves" — our lives — "from all filth- 
iness of the flesh and spirit." The way 
to "perfect faith" is by good works: 
" Seest thou how faith wrought with his 
works, and by works was faith made per- 
fect." The command is, "Be ye holy." 
How ? "As ye have yielded your mem- 
bers servants to uncleanness and to in- 
iquity unto iniquity, even so now yield 

* No man would quote these vows to prove that 
sanctification is a " second change," if he had not 
first confounded sanctification with Christian per- 
fection — purity with maturity. 



Christian Perfection. 



211 



your members servants to righteousness 
unto holiness;" for "now being made 
free from sin, and become servants of 
God, ye have your fruit unto holiness." 
With the Bible before him, how any 
man can propose to write a book and 
say, " In this work I shall use the terms 
sanctification, perfect love, holiness, 
maturity, and perfection, as meaning 
the same thing, and as describing the 
same work of grace in the heart," is a 
mystery I can not comprehend! And 
yet all the books on the "higher life" 
are written from this stand-point. Is 
it any wonder that those who wrote 
them and those who read them "find 
no end in wandering mazes lost?" Is 
it any wonder that under such teachers 
the very terms "sanctification," "holi- 
ness," and " Christian perfection " have 
become the synonyms of "confusion," 



212 The Problem of Methodism. 

"mystery," and "fanaticism?" And 
what is worse than all is, if a man has a 
mind that can write a book on a propo- 
sition so absurd as that, without discov- 
ering the absurdity, there is but little 
hope of ever getting him to see how ab- 
surd such an absurdity really is. If 
any one thinks this is severe, all I ask 
is, get the "Southern Methodist Review" 
for November, 1887, and read the article 
on "Sanctijication.'' 

The importance of purifying our lives 
as God purifies our hearts, in order to 
" perfect holiness in the fear of God," 
has not been fully realized by the 
Church; and nothing tends more to 
call off the mind of the Church from 
this important duty than to confound 
sanctification with Christian perfection. 
Those who make this mistake gather 
up a number of proof-texts without any 



Christian Perfection. 



213 



reference to the contexts; just so the 
word sanctify, or perfection, or holiness, 
occurs in the text, they seem never to 
stop to see the nature of the duty en- 
joined, or the true application of the 
word used. To them they all have the 
same meaning and look to the same 
end ; and that end is a " second change " 
to remove " remaining corruption,'* 
which they imagine was left in the mor- 
al nature of those who have been "re- 
newed in the divine image " and "made 
partakers of the divine nature." 

The holiness required of us in the 
Bible is more than "a state of moral 
purity," or "the right state of our pow- 
ers," or " the right temper of our minds," 
or "the right disposition of our souls" 
— holiness is more than all these nega- 
tive virtues and necessitated states of 
the soul, which culminate in " doing no 



214 



The Problem of Methodism. 



harm." God will supply us with all 
the prerequisites to holiness (such as 
freedom from the guilt and pollution of 
sin, a pure moral nature, and the in- 
dwelling Spirit); but Ave must "ivalk 
after the Spirit," "be led by the Spirit," 
be " taught of the Spirit" — we must 
"fulfill the righteousness of the law," 
and " cleanse ourselves from all filthi- 
ness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting 
holiness in the fear of God." 

A command to do is as much a law 
as a command not to do ; and a viola- 
tion of the one command is as much a 
sin as the violation of the other. The 
servant of one talent was called a 
"wicked servant," not because he had 
used it to do evil, but because he had 
failed to improve it. The fig-tree was 
cursed, not because it bore pernicious 
fruit, but because it bore no fruit. The 



Christian Perfection. 



215 



inhabitants of Meroz were " cursed bit- 
terly," not because they went over and 
joined the enemy, but "because they 
came not up to the help of the Lord, to 
the help of the Lord against the mighty." 
" How shall we escape if we neglect so 
great salvation?" Christ represents 
many as being condemned at the judg- 
ment because of duties neglected. The 
possibility and the duty of a Christian 
" abiding in Christ and sinning not "— 
of " abiding in him and keeping his 
commandments" — is the grand ques- 
tion we wish to get before the Church. 
A Christian life which produces obedi- 
ence is the "higher life" to which we 
are called. A pure heart, followed by a 
holy life, is the grand end proposed in 
the gospel. 

But it seems more reasonable to 
many that Christ can " cleanse us from 



216 



The Problem of Methodism. 



all sin " than that we can be " preserved 
blameless " in such a state. That is, 
they can see how Christ can do his part, 
but they do not see how we are to per- 
form our part. Of course, if left to our 
own strength we would fail; but the 
grace which renews us in the divine 
image and purifies our hearts can sus- 
tain us. John says : " Whosoever is 
born of God doth not commit sin ; for 
his seed remaineth in him : and he can 
not sin, because he is born of God." 
(1 John iii. 9.) In the new birth we 
are w renewed in the image of him who 
created us," we "put off the old man, 
which is corrupt, and put on the new 
man, which is created according to the 
f original] divine pattern in uprightness 
and moral purity ; " "we are made par- 
takers of the divine nature," "being 
born, not of corruptible seed, but of in- 



Christian Perfection. 



217 



corruptible, by the word* of God." JSTow 
"that which is born of the Spirit is 
spirit," and this spiritual nature is the 
"seed" which "remains in those who 
are born of God" — this is the "law of 
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which 
makes us free from the law of sin and 
death" — this "destroys the body of 
sin," "the carnal mind," and gives us 
a "spiritual mind," "if so be that the 
Spirit of God dwells in you." Now the 
indwelling of this "seed" is an infallible 
preventive of the commission of sin. 
Such a man "doth not commit sin, for 
his seed remaineth in him, and he can 
not sin because he is born of God." 
This state is maintained by "abiding 
in Christ;" "whoso abideth in him sin- 
neth not; " for if we " abide in him," his 
" seed will remain in us ; " and so long- 
as "his seed remaineth in us we can 



218 



The Problem of Methodism. 



not sin, because we are born of God" 
— we have the " Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus," which "frees us from the law of 
sin and death," so " that the righteous- 
ness of the law is fulfilled in us." A 
holy life depends, then, upon our " be- 
ing born of God," and " abiding in 
Christ." "Abide in me, and I in you. 
As the branch can not bear fruit of 
itself, except it abide in the vine, no 
more can ye, except ye abide in me. I 
am the vine, ye are the branches. He 
that abideth in me, and I in him, the 
same bringeth forth much fruit ; for 
without me ye can do nothing." The ques- 
tion now is, how are we to "abide in 
Christ? " The bond of this union with 
Christ is faith. Paul says: " The just 
shall live by faith; " " we walk hy faith;" 
"thou standeth by faith;" "the life I 
now live, I live by faith in the Son of 



Christian Perfection. 



219 



God." John says : " This is the victory 
that overcometh the world, even our 
faith." Peter says: "You are kept by 
the power of God through faith." Such is 
the philosophy of a holy life. Holiness 
is not simply a state of moral purity, 
but also the result of right actions. God 
makes us pure, but we are to make our- 
selves holy. " Blessed are the undefiled 
in the way, who walk in the law of the 
Lord." God's law is the test of charac- 
ter, the rule of life, and the standard of 
holiness. The gospel does not release 
us from obedience, hut purifies our hearts 
and gives us grace to keep the law, so 
"that the righteousness of the law 
might be fulfilled in us." If God has 
purified our hearts, we must purify our 
lives by abiding in him and keeping 
his commandments," or we will lose our 
purity and forfeit our pardon, and have 



220 



The Problem of Methodism. 



to "lay again the foundation of repent- 
ance from dead works." 

"Thou hast a few names, even in 
Sardis, which have not defiled their 
garments, and they shall walk with me 
in white ; for they are worthy." (Rev. 
iii. 4.) Here, then, we have a few 
names held up by the great Head of the 
Church who " had not defiled their gar- 
ments." It is here, during probation, 
we are to " wash our robes and make 
them white in the blood of the Lamb ; " 
and so it is here, in a state of activity 
and trial, amid the temptations and pol- 
lutions of this world, we are to "keep 
ourselves unspotted from the world," 
and our "garments undefiled." Thus 
did the "few names at Sardis," and 
thus may all who are "born of God" 
keep themselves pure. It was this that 
made them " meet for the inheritance 



Christian Perfection. 



221 



of the saints In light" — "worthy to 
walk with him in white." The whole 
life of such a Christian is fragrant with 
the odors of paradise : 

When one that holds communion with the skies 
Has filled his urn where these pure waters rise, 
And once more mingles with us meaner things, 
'Tis even as if an angel shook his wings. 
Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide, 
That tells us whence his treasures are supplied.. 
If the Church had the moral power 
of which holiness of life is the precur- 
sor, she might gird herself for the con- 
quest of the world. Every member 
would then be transformed into a faith- 
ful Caleb or a believing Joshua, to sus- 
tain the uplifted hands of God's legates 
as they lead the hosts of Israel to bat- 
tle and to victory, until a conquered 
world would join in the song: 

" Justice and mercy, holiness and love, 
Among the people walk — Messiah reigns, 
And earth keeps jubilee a thousand years." 



222 The Problem of Methodism. 

Having "put on her beautiful gar- 
ments," the Church would walk through 
the earth with the mien of an angel, 
while on every hand, as from the lap of 
spring, she would scatter the buds of 
hope to bloom in immortal blessedness. 
With a love as pure and quenchless as 
the ethereal fire of heaven, a zeal as 
fervent as the galvanic flame, a light as 
clear and stainless as the sunbeams ; 
she would impart a sacred charm to the 
very name of religion that would cause 
the eager eyes of youth to look longing- 
ly forth, as the lark for the morning, 
that they might pour the sweetest notes 
of life's earliest song into the listening 
ear of heaven ! 



CHAPTER VIII. 

"Not Under the Law, but Under 
Grace." 

To unite faith and works, to harmo- 
nize the law and grace, so as to make a 
harmonious system of practical religion, 
is a work of vital interest to every 
Christian. To do this is to put the 
Christian on vantage-ground in devel- 
oping a well-rounded character. It 
gives him such a view of the plan of 
salvation as will make him rejoice — re- 
joice though " with fear and trembling." 
Let no one suppose this to be a work of 
supererogation ; for I know of no sub- 
ject of so much importance that is so 
little understood. While it is possible 
for one to be saved in spite of doctrinal 

error, yet a clear view of the plan of 

(223) 



224 The Problem, of Methodism. 



salvation is necessary to the highest de- 
velopment of the Christian graces. 

The love of God is the source, the 
death of Christ is the meritorious cause, 
and faith is the condition of salvation 
from the guilt and pollution of sin — 
that is, the plan of salvation originated 
in the love of God, there is no merit 
except in the death of Christ, and there 
can be no forgiveness and renewal of 
our moral nature without faith. It is 
exceedingly difficult to state and defend 
the doctrine of justification and sancti- 
fication by faith only without seeming to 
ignore practical obedience. To preach 
a present salvation from all sin, without 
" making void the law," is delicate 
work indeed. 

Let us go back to first principles. 
Obedience is our normal relation to the 
divine government. All created intel- 



Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 225 

ligences are under obligation to obey 
their Creator. This obligation grows 
out of their ereatureship, and runs par- 
allel with their endless existence. No 
position we may assume to the divine 
government, in this life or the next, can 
release us from this obligation of obedi- 
ence. So far from the saints in heaven 
being released from this obligation, 
their eternal safety grows out of the fact 
that they have been confirmed in a state 
of perfect obedience; and, instead of 
the lost in perdition being thereby re- 
leased from obedience, it is this obliga- 
tion that will kindle the flames that will 
enwrap them forever. So far from the 
impenitent sinner on earth being there- 
by released from obedience, it is this 
obligation unmet that involves him in 
condemnation already ; and, instead of 

the justified believer being therebv re- 
15 



226 The Problem of Methodism. 



leased from obedience, he forfeits his 
justified state the very moment he will- 
fully violates any one of the commands 
of God. 

Practical obedience, then, lies back 
of the atonement, and can never be re- 
pealed. The design of the atonement 
was to put us where " the righteousness 
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who 
walk not after the flesh, but after the 
Spirit." The plan of salvation was in- 
troduced to meet the condition of man, 
not as he came from the hand of his 
Creator, pure and innocent, but as a 
fallen, guilty, and depraved being. In 
arranging this plan the question was 
not, How can man be released from all 
obligation to obedience ? but, How can a 
guilty, depraved being be forgiven, and 
his moral nature " renewed in upright- 
ness and moral purity," so that he can 



Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 227 



keep the law? Now, if it were possi- 
ble for any sinner to keep the law from 
this moment until death, he would only 
perform his duty during that period of 
time, while all the "unpardoned past" 
would still stand against him. Hence, 
if his past sins are ever forgiven and 
his moral nature " renewed in the di- 
vine image," it must be done by some 
plan of mercy. The gospel is such a 
plan. Through the vicarious death of 
Christ God offers a full pardon for all 
past sins and a thorough "cleansing 
from all unrighteousness," upon the 
condition of faith only. " To him that 
worketh not, but believeth on him that 
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is count- 
ed for righteousness" "We conclude, 
therefore, that a man is justified by 
faith without the deeds of the law." 
But what now? Is such a justified 



228 The Problem of Methodism. 

believer thereby released from obedi- 
ence ? Is his probation at an end ? Is 
the personal righteousness of Christ so 
imputed to him that obedience is no 
part of the condition of his final salva- 
tion? We will let Paul answer these 
momentous questions : " There is there- 
fore now no condemnation to them 
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not 
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 
For the law of the Spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus hath made me free [not 
from the moral law, but] from the law 
of sin and death, . . . that the 
righteousness of the [moral] law might 
be fulfilled m us!" Paul affirms that 
"Abraham's faith was imputed to him 
for [instead of past] righteousness ; " 
that this " was written for our sake, to 
whom it shall be imputed [in the 
same way], if we believe;" that in this 



Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 229 

sense we are "justified by faith only," 
but that we are thus " made free from 
the law of sin and death," in order 
"that the righteousness of the law 
might be fulfilled [not in Christ for us, 
but] in us, who walk not after the flesh, 
but after the Spirit." Now this " fulfill- 
ing the righteousness of the law" is 
practical obedience; and this is what 
St. James meant when he said, " that a 
man is justified by works, and not by 
faith only," and "that faith without 
works is dead." Hence, that which St. 
Paul calls "fulfilling the righteousness 
of the law" St. James calls "justifica- 
tion by works ; " and they agree in this : 
they both put this practical obedience 
after justification by faith only. Thus 
the seeming conflict between Paul 
and James is reconciled, and faith 
and works are harmonized so as to 



230 



The Problem, of Methodism. 



make a grand system of practical relig- 
ion. 

Now the only text which seems to 
conflict with this view is Paul's decla- 
ration, " We are not under the law, but 
under grace." Of all the " hard things 
to be understood in Paul's Epistles," 
and which " some have perverted to 
their own destruction," perhaps none 
has been so perverted as this — especial- 
ly as this has been perverted to the de- 
struction of good works. The truth is, 
the declaration, "We are not under the 
law, but under grace," can have no 
bearing on practical obedience or good 
works, unless it be assumed that the 
gospel has lowered the standard of obedi- 
ence; but such an assumption would 
be Antinomianism gone to seed. Owing 
to the nature of moral law — it being "a 
transcript of the divine mind" — God 



Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 231 

could change his own immutable nature 
as easily as he could lower the standard 
of obedience. Through the vicarious 
death of Christ God can forgive the 
believing penitent ; but if he could have 
lowered the standard of obedience one 
iota, then he could have released man 
from all obligation to keep the law, and 
saved his well-beloved Son from the 
agonies of the garden and the death- 
throes of the cross. 

What, then, did Paul mean by not 
" being under the law, but under grace ? " 
Simply this: We are not under the 
law, or covenant of works, under which 
Adam was originally placed, and in 
which there was no provision for par- 
don, but we are under the covenant of 
grace which was provided for the ex- 
press purpose of granting pardon. But 
so far from the covenant of grace lower- 



232 The Problem of Methodism. 



ing the standard of obedience, the com- 
mand still is: "Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, 
and with all thy strength," and "Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
Christ said: "If ye love me, keep my 
commandments." Paul said : "Yea, we 
establish the law ; " and that its " right- 
eousness must be fulfilled in us." And 
John said: "Little children, sin not — 
he that committeth sin is of the devil ; 
but if any man sin, we have an advocate 
with the Father, Jesus Christ the right- 
eous." Thus, while every believer is 
required to keep the law and live with- 
out sin, yet, in the event he sins, his 
case is different from Adam's in this : 
Adam w r as under the covenant of works 
which made no provision for pardon, 
whereas we are under the covenant of 



Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 233 



grace which was given for the express 
purpose of granting pardon ; and this 
privilege of pardon is extended during 
our probation to the backslider as well 
as the returning sinner. But in either 
case this pardon is obtained not by 
works, but by faith in Jesus' name. 
Faith in Christ, as the atoning sacrifice 
for the sins of the world, is the only 
condition of forgiveness ; and it is by 
faith that it might be by grace. If Je- 
sus had " paid all the debt we owe" as 
the Antinomians teach, then pardon for 
past sins and a release from all obliga- 
tions to keep the law in the future 
would have been ours by right of pur- 
chase; for if "Jesus paid it all," the 
whole debt is canceled. In this view, sal- 
vation would not be of grace, but of 
debt ; and not only grace, but faith also 
would have been excluded from the plan 



234 



The Problem of Methodism. 



of salvation ; for if the whole debt is 
paid, then all other conditions would 
have been superseded. " Jesus paid it 
all — all the debt I owe," may jingle 
very well as third-rate poetry, but it 
contains a false idea of the atonement 
as set forth in the Bible. According to 
the Scriptures, an atonement is not 
only a substitution of one person for an- 
other, but also the substitution of one 
kind of suffering for another. Hence 
Christ did not pay our debt in kind or 
quantity; * but owing to the dignity of 
his person and his relation to the divine 
government, when he took our nature 
and laid down his life for us, such was 
the purity of his life and the dignity of 

* Christ did uot suffer the remorse of conscious 
guilt, the bitterest drop id the siouer's cup of woe; 
Dor could he have suffered all that was due the 
whole race. The idea is absurd. 



Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 235 

the sacrifice and the nature of his suffer- 
ing, God could offer pardon on the con- 
dition of faith, and final salvation on 
the condition of obedience. The atone- 
ment, then, is not a commercial transac- 
tion, in which God proposes to so im- 
pute the personal righteousness of 
Christ to me as to release me from per- 
sonal obedience ; but the atonement is 
such an expediency introduced into the 
divine administration as that " God can 
be just, and the justifier of all who be- 
lieve in Christ;" and when the sinner 
is thus forgiven and " renewed in up- 
rightness and moral purity," he is to 
seek grace through Christ, to enable him 
to keep the law. And if this is not done, 
he forfeits his justified state, and falls 
into condemnation; and having forfeit- 
ed his pardon, he becomes responsible 
for the old debt that had been forgiven. 



236 The Problem of Methodism, 



In proof of this I refer to the case of 
the unmerciful servant recorded in the 
eighteenth chapter of Matthew : " Then 
his lord . . . said unto him, 0 thou 
wicked servant, I forgave thee all that 
debt, . . . shouldest not thou also have 
had compassion on thy fellow-servant, 
even as I had pity on thee ? And his 
lord was wroth, and delivered him to 
the tormentors, till he should pay all 
that was due unto him." Thus the 
man not only forfeited his pardon, but 
in so doing he became responsible for 
the old debt which had been forgiven. 
And that there might be no mistake as 
to what Christ intended to teach, he 
said : " So likewise shall my Father in 
heaven do also unto every one of you, 
if }^e from your hearts forgive not every 
one his brother their trespasses ! " But 
some one is ready to ask, Does not God 



Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 237 

say, " I will forgive their iniquity, and 
I will remember their sin no more?" 
Yea, truly ; but we must remember that 
every woe pronounced against the sin- 
ner, and every promise made to the 
righteous in this life is conditional; 
and the contingency depends upon the 
voluntary acts of the creature, and not 
upon any change "in the Father of 
lights, with whom is no variableness, 
neither shadow of turning." Hence 
God says : " When I say unto the wick- 
ed thou shalt surely die ; if he turn from 
his sin, . . . he shall surely live." And 
" when I shall say to the righteous that 
he shall surely live ; if he turn from 
his righteousness and commit iniquity, 
all his righteousness shall not be remem- 
bered ; but for his iniquity that he hath 
committed, he shall die." " Yet the chil- 
dren of thy people say the way of the 



238 The Problem of Methodism. 

Lord is not equal; but as for them, 
their way is not equal." 

Instead, then, of the personal right- 
eousness of Christ being so imputed to 
me as to release me from personal obe- 
dience, I may forfeit my pardon by fail- 
ing to forgive my brother ; yea, Christ 
warned every man in the college of 
apostles of this clanger. Hence, so far 
from it being true that the justification 
which comes to me through the merits 
of Christ being " eternal and uncondi- 
tional," the Bible teaches that we re- 
ceive this justification on the condition 
of faith, and that we retain our justified 
state on the condition of obedience. 
And so far from it being true that " if 
we are once in grace, we are always in 
grace," the truth is, a man may not 
only forfeit his justified state, but he 
may die in that condition; and dying 



Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 239 

thus, all his righteousness shall be for- 
gotten, and he shall be punished for all 
the sins of his life. The Bible declares 
that "the righteousness of the right- 
eous shall not deliver him in the day of 
his transgression." "When a right- 
eous man turneth away from his right- 
eousness and committeth iniquity, and 
dieth in them, for his iniquity that he 
hath done shall he die ! " " If a man 
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a 
branch, and is withered ; and men gath- 
er them, and cast them into the fire, and 
they are burned." "War a good war- 
fare, holding faith and a good con- 
science ; which some having put away, 
concerning faith have made shipwreck : 
of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander ! " 
Thus we fear that hundreds who "were 
once enlightened and made partakers 
of the divine nature, and tasted of the 



240 The Problem of Methodism. 

good word of God and the powers of the 
world to come," have now "left their 
first love," forfeited their justified state, 
and are drifting toward the breakers 
where Hymeneus and Alexander made 
shipwreck of their faith; while others 
have left the "old ship" and gone to 
sea in the devil's craft, and as they sail 
on dreaming they are "bound for Ca- 
naan's happy shore," lo! it is a demon's 
breath that fills their sails, and a de- 
mon's hand that guides their bark to 
ruin. To every one who wants to save 
his soul alive in heaven the Bible says : 
" Christ gave himself for us, that he 
might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
purify unto himself a peculiar people, 
zealous of good works." " The blood of 
Christ shall purge your conscience from 
dead works to serve the living Grod." 
" He that endureth to the end shall be 



Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 241 

saved." And "Be thou faithful until 
death, and I will give thee a crown of 
life." 

Thus we see that, instead of there be- 
ing any conflict between justification 
by faith and justification by works, 
both are necessary in order to get to 
heaven. Justification by faith relates 
to the forgiveness of past sins, and 
must be repeated as often as we sin 
willfully. Justification by works is the 
result of retaining our justified state by 
"abiding in Christ and keeping his 
commandments." Now the Bible teach- 
es that justification by works is the 
grand basis upon which the final judg- 
ment will be conducted. In every place 
where the judgment is brought under 
review, not one word is said about faith, 
but every man is to give an account of 

his works. " For we must all appear 
16 



242 The Problem of Methodism. 

before the judgment-seat of Christ, that 
every one may receive the things done 
in the body, whether they be good or 
evil/' "And I saw the dead, small and 
great, stand before God ; and the books 
were opened: and another book was 
opened, which is the book of life: and 
the dead were judged out of those 
things written in the books, according 
to their works. And the sea gave up 
the dead which were in it; and death 
and hell delivered up the dead which 
were in them: and they were judged 
every man according to their works." 
"Behold, I come quickly; and my re- 
ward is with me, to give every man ac- 
cording as his work shall be ! " " Bless- 
ed are they that do his commandments, 
that they may have right to the tree 
of life, and may enter in through the 
gates into the city." 



Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 243 

The points discussed in this chapter 
are so vital, and a clear apprehension 
of them is so important to every one 
that would "work out his salvation 
with fear and trembling,"' we pause 
long enough to give a brief review 
of these points and the lessons they 
teach. 

We learn, first, that no sinner can 
render acceptable obedience to God un- 
til he lays down his arms of rebellion, 
accepts pardon, and is ''renewed in the 
divine image," by faith in the blood of 
the Crucified One. The persistent im- 
penitent sinner is in a state of enmity 
against God ; and so long as he occupies 
this attitude all his boasted morality 
and good deeds avail him nothing; yea, 
the Bible declares that " his ways, his 
thoughts, his sacrifices," and even "his 
prayers are an abomination unto the 



244 The Problem of Methodism. 



Lord."* If the " righteousness of the 
righteous shall not deliver him in the 
day of his transgression," how can any 
act of the impenitent sinner be accept- 
able to God? "Your sword first, and 
then your hand," is the way for a rebel 
to surrender to his sovereign. " Let 
the wicked forsake his way, and the un- 
righteous man his thoughts ; and let him 
return unto the Lord, and he will have 
mercy upon him, and to our God, for he 
will abundantly pardon." A man that 
has not been subdued by the cross is of 
necessity under the wrath of God. 
The atonement is a supreme effort of 
divine love to save man from the penal 
consequences of sin. The cross is God's 
final statement of the impossibility of 
winking at sin. The dying agonies of 

*A11 this is equally true of a once justified be- 
liever who is now indulging any secret sin. 



Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 245 

the Son of God demonstrate that sin 
can never be pardoned as a mere act of 
executive clemency — that justice is a 
supreme factor in the government of 
God — a consideration so vital that when 
Christ placed himself in the sinner's 
stead, even he had to suffer! Hence, 
if men will not be reconciled through 
the death of Christ, they must be sub- 
jugated by force. When any sinner 
has proved himself unworthy of a gov- 
ernment of motive and moral suasion, 
he is degraded to the level of physical 
control ; and, as a last resort, God 
maintains his authority by coercion 
and penal suffering. The atonement is 
a fact never to be repeated : it belongs 
to probation, and probation limits its pro- 
vision for pardon. 

We learn, secondly, that no justified 
believer can retain his justified state 



246 The Problem of Methodism. 



unless he " abides in Christ and keeps 
his commandments." But not every 
sin committed after justification is a sin 
unto death; hence we should not give 
up the struggle against sin, though we 
fall into sin again and again; for "if 
any man sin, we have an advocate with 
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," 
" who is touched with the feelings of 
our infirmities, and who ever liveth to 
make intercession for us." 

We learn, thirdly, that for a sinner 
or a backslider to persist in sin, be- 
cause the gospel is a grand system of 
forgiveness, is the very essence of in- 
gratitude, the height of presumption, 
and shows a love of sin and a hatred 
of holiness which ought to make the 
cheek of a demon incarnate blush for 
shame. Yet there are more men and 
women going to hell on this line than 



Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 247 

any other. " Because sentence against 
an evil work is not executed speedily, 
therefore the hearts of the children of 
men are fully set in them to do evil! " 
This is the class "who hold the truth 
in unrighteousness;" "and for this 
cause God sends them a strong delusion 
that they might believe a lie, that they 
all might be damned." No man ever 
rejects the offer of mercy without be- 
lieving that he will have another op- 
portunity of being saved. Now every 
sinner in perdition had his last offer of 
mercy, but he rejected it, believing he 
would have another; and in believing 
that, he believed a lie, and sealed his 
damnation. 

Finally, as the grace of God is the 
source, and the death of Christ is the 
meritorious cause of our salvation, all 
who get to heaven will join in the song, 



248 



The Problem of Methodism. 



"Unto him who loved us, and gave 
himself for us, and washed us in his own 
blood, unto him be honor, glory, power, 
and dominion forever and forever. 
Amen!" 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Laws and Conditions of Spir- 
itual Growth. 

As it is now clear that the higher 
life is to be reached by growing in 
grace, it is important to understand the 
philosophy of moral development. 

All vegetable growth is dependent 
upon extraneous influences — such as 
soil and sunshine, moisture and heat. 
No animal can live and breathe aside 
from air. The mind is dependent upon 
external conditions which must be sup- 
plied if vigor and growth are realized. 
So it is with our moral and spiritual 
natures. God can not be loved only as 
the attributes of his nature which awak- 
en and call forth our love are perceived 

and contemplated by us. "We love 

(249) 



250 The Problem of Methodism. 

him because he first loved us." The 
whole question of natural, moral, and 
gracious ability is too little understood. 
Such a thing as an agent acting wholly 
from his own center — as a self-centered 
and self-acting power — is not to be 
found aside from the Divine Being. 
There is a sense in which dependence 
is the condition of all created beings. 
This is one of the fundamental laws 
underlying their creatureship. " In 
him we live and move and have our 
being." The all-pervading Spirit is the 
conserving and sustaining life of our 
being. As in natural life we can not 
breathe without air, so in spiritual life 
God supplies all the necessary elements 
and conditions of such a state, so as to 
make virtue and holiness possible while 
he keeps us in bonds of obligation and 
in the sphere of dependence on him. 



Spiritual Growth. 251 



God requires no man to do without the 
ability to do; and this ability being 
given, or promised, it is left to man, as 
a responsible agent, to decide whether 
he will obey or disobey the divine com- 
mands. 

To understand the laws of grace, so 
as to know how and where to take hold 
of them, is a question of vital impor- 
tance. While all may be ready to ad- 
mit that God is ready to perform his 
part, yet but few seem to have compre- 
hended the laws of divine assistance so 
as to realize all that the gospel prom- 
ises. How often does it happen that 
when we need divine aid we go search- 
ing in ourselves instead of making the 
effort and leaving the whole question of 
ability with God. The performance is 
our part ; the power to do comes from 
God. It often happens that the ability 



252 The Problem of Methodism. 

is given as the effort is put forth. It 
was thus with the lame man who took 
up his bed and went his way, and the 
man with the withered hand who re- 
ceived the power in the effort to stretch 
it forth. 

Thus the one talent becomes two by 
using it. As we go forth in the dis- 
charge of duty, our ability to do and 
suffer multiplies like the bread in the 
hands of the disciples. As they did 
not wait for the Master to multiply the 
bread before they began the distribu- 
tion, but began with what they had, so 
we are to go forth to our work with our 
present ability, and God will give the 
increase as occasion demands. We 
must prove faithful to the grace already 
bestowed before we have the right to 
expect more. Thus the law of increase 
is found in the activity necessary to em- 



Spiritual Growth. 



253 



ploy our present capital. Faith be- 
comes strong by constant exercise. 
Love glows and burns in proportion to 
the labor it performs and the sacrifices 
it makes. So all moral powers live and 
grow just as they are "exercised unto 
godliness." The path of the Christian 
grows brighter as he advances. They 
who wait on the Lord shall renew their 
strength ; they shall walk and not faint ; 
they shall run and not be weary ; they 
shall mount up with wings as eagles, 
and soar and talk with God. 

If, then, you have but one talent, be 
sure to improve that, and in due time it 
will produce another. One talent im- 
proved is infinitely better than ten tal- 
ents lying idle. He that improves that 
which he hath, more will be given unto 
him ; while he who fails to improve that 
which he hath shall lose his original 



254 The Problem of Methodism. . 

capital. Our final attainments depend 
not so much upon the number of talents 
originally given as upon the use we 
have made of them. What thou doest 
must be done quickly; for "the night 
cometh, when no man can work." Time 
is precious. Our interest for all eterni- 
ty will be effected by what we do dur- 
ing life — during the little space of time 
that lies between us and the tomb. 
The foundation laid during our proba- 
tion is the only foundation on which we 
can build forever. Let us see that this 
foundation is laid deep and broad. 

We come now to consider the condi- 
tions of spiritual growth. If we are 
born of God we have already come un- 
der the first condition of growth. Spir- 
itual life being engendered in the soul 
by the Holy Spirit, we are "free from 
the law of sin and death," and are 



Spiritual Growth. 



255 



ready to "walk after the Spirit" and to 
"grow in grace." Now this spiritual 
life, like all life, has the law of expan- 
sion, of growth within itself, as an in- 
herent force. There is nothing that has 
life but what has such a law wrapped 
up in • it. This is the nature of vital 
force wherever it is found. This dis- 
tinguishes life from death. Death has 
no power of growth ; it always tends to 
dissolution, but life always tends to 
growth. Thus the life of God, "the 
law of the Spirit of life," in the soul has 
a tendency to expand, to grow. All the 
babe in Christ has to do is to comply 
with the conditions of spiritual growth ; 
the law of it being an inherent princi- 
ple already at work in the newborn 
soul. If we do not grow it is because 
we impede the action of this law, just 
as some tribes of our race hinder the 



256 The Problem of Methodism. 

growth of certain members of their 
body by placing them in clamps. Un- 
der the appropriate conditions and in- 
fluences which lie within our sphere of 
choice we should, on becoming babes 
in Christ, grow up unto men in Christ 
as surely as the child grows to be a 
man, or as the seed develops into the 
" blade, then the ear, and then the full 
corn in the ear." 

We have but little to do with the 
laws, but a good deal to do with the 
conditions of spiritual growth. It takes 
a Liebig to analyze and classify the 
laws of vegetable life, but any peasant 
can raise vegetables enough to supply a 
village. So it might require an arch- 
angel to explain the laws of spiritual 
life and growth, but the simplest child 
of God may so comprehend and apply 
the conditions of spiritual growth as to 



Spiritual Growth. 



257 



become a mature Christian. Our spir- 
itual life comes from God — "that which 
is born of the Spirit is spirit" — and he 
will keep it intact if we do not check 
the operation of its laws by allowing 
obstacles to be interposed. 

In the parable of the sower Christ 
speaks of some in whom the seed did 
not bear fruit. " The cares of this 
world, and the deceitfulness of riches/' 
" choke the word, and it becometh un- 
fruitful." Christ here recognized the 
law of growth, and the fact that this 
law would have acted if it had not been 
prevented by "the cares of this world, 
and the deceitfulness of riches." These 
things prevented the law of spiritual 
life from "bringing forth fruit to per- 
fection." We may permit thorns and 
weeds to grow up and choke the seed 
we sow r , or we may keep these obstacles 



258 



The Problem of Methodism. 



out of the way, leaving the seed to have 
free course to obey the laws of growth 
under which they are placed, and so 
" bring forth fruit" at the appointed 
time. So in spiritual husbandry the 
good seed will grow if we do not per- 
mit the energies and affections of the 
soul to be drawn off to nourish other 
and hostile growths. If the powers 
and affections of the soul are absorbed 
in other things, of course the divine life 
can not grow. It is as much impossi- 
ble for it to unfold and "bring forth 
fruit to perfection " as it is for corn to 
grow and mature while overrun and 
choked with thorns and thistles. The 
soul must give it&elf up to the fruits of 
the Spirit, and let no intruder and 
usurper come in and occupy the sanc- 
tum which was "swept and garnished" 
when "the unclean spirit was cast out." 



Spiritual Growth. 



259 



We may starve the divine life as 
well as choke it. Hence, another con- 
dition of growth is nourishment. A 
soul conversant with a few old stereo- 
typed thoughts can never be the home 
of an expanding spiritual life. In such 
a soul this life, like every thing else in 
it, will be dwarfed. In such a soul re- 
ligion may run into fanaticism, or quiet- 
ism, but it can not shine out in its own 
native loveliness and beauty — " born of 
heaven and as free as the air." 

Men of the world sometimes complain 
that the Church furnishes but few 
grand, well-rounded Christian charac- 
ters. One reason is, the world furnish- 
es such poor, dwarfed, contracted souls 
for the Church to develop. If the 
world will furnish great, generous, act- 
ive, thinking, investigating minds for 
the divine life to grow in, then the 



260 The Problem of Methodism. 



Church will show great, noble, living, 
and mature Christians. Another rea- 
son for this deficiency in Christian 
growth is found in the fact that the 
world is always busy trying to persuade 
or entice the members of the Church to 
leave the fountain of life and the 
bread of heaven, and come and sip of 
the cup of worldly j)leasure and eat the 
husks of worldly comforts ; and, alas ! 
the majority of them yield to the temp- 
tation. Thus thousands have gone off 
after the world and are saying, "We 
are rich, and increased with goods, and 
have need of nothing;" and know not 
that »they are wretched, and miserable, 
and poor, and starved, and blind, 
and naked! To all such the Master 
says : " Behold I stand at the door and 
knock; if any man hear my voice, and 
open the door, I will come in to him, 



Spiritual Growth. 



261 



and will sup with him, and he with 
me." 

No one can say that his spiritual nat- 
ure is starved for the want of an ample 
provision being made. For " there is 
bread enough in our Father's house " 
for all his children — "enough and to 
spare." We are not straitened and 
pressed in on all sides by our Father, 
but in ourselves. Our Father has made 
ample provision for the healthy devel- 
opment of every one born of God. But 
if we would grow we must feed upon 
this bread of life. We must drink often 
and deep at the fountain of life. If we 
would grow into the highest possible 
spiritual life we must gaze and wonder, 
love and adore, hope and rejoice — must 
ply our whole nature with the entire 
circuit of truth, stretch our cords on 
this side and now on the other, elicit 



262 



The Problem of Methodism. 



our powers by all truth and beauty. To 
be a full-grown Christian, we must be 
developed heavenward and earthward 
— Godwarcl and manward — linked to 
God and man according to our relations 
to each, and in harmony with both. 

To attain the " full stature of a man 
in Christ Jesus," we must have a place, 
and take the time for meditation and 
prayer — some sacred retreat, where we 
may be alone with God. The most vivid 
moral inrpressions, unless often repeat- 
ed, will, like the morning dew, be ex- 
haled by the sun of worldly prosperity 
or brushed away by our necessary con- 
tact with the world. Hence the abso- 
lute necessity of retirement and medi- 
tation, as well as constant watchfulness 
against worldly charms. We must cul- 
tivate the habit of reflection, heavenly 
contemplation, and prayer. We must 



Spiritual Growth. 



263 



study God's word ; bringing before the 
mind every day the great realities 
which the Bible reveals, and arrest 
them and hold them to the eye of the 
soul, and look at them till the impres- 
sion is left upon our inmost nature — till 
the objects rise and stand out in their 
magnitude — till the effect becomes so 
fixed and incorporated that when we go 
out amid sensible objects we will carry 
the sanctifying influence of these things 
with us. Thus in the very business 
and bustle of life our thoughts would; 
recur to the topics of retired medita- 
tion, and our worldly plans would be. 
formed and executed under some just 
estimate of the comparative value of 
things temporal and things eternal. 

It is said that in the Royal Gallery 
at Dresden may be seen a group of con- 
noisseurs who sit for hours before a 



264 



The Problem of Methodism. 



single painting. Then they walk 
around those halls and corridors whose 
walls are so eloquent with the triumphs 
of art, but they hurry back and pause 
again before that one masterpiece of 
Raphael. Lovers of art can not enjoy 
it to the full till they have made it 
their own by prolonged communion 
with its matchless forms. One could 
spend an hour every day for a year upon 
that assemblage of human, angelic, and 
divine ideas, and on the last day discov- 
er some new beauty and new joy. But 
what thoughts, what ideals of grace, 
can genius throw upon canvas like those 
great thoughts of God, of heaven, of 
eternity, which stand out in the purview 
of faith as the soul is en rapport with 
heaven ? What conception can art im- 
agine of the " Divine Child " which can 
equal in spirituality the conception 



Spiritual Growth. 



265 



which one has of Christ in the prayer 
of faith? How often do we say of a 
pleasure, "I wish I had more time, so 
that I could enjoy it to my heart's con- 
tent ! " But no enjoyment can be more 
dependent on time for its performance 
than heavenly contemplation and secret 
prayer. Hurried acts of devotion, to 
be of any value, must be sustained by 
other approaches to God, which are de- 
liberate, premeditated, regular, and 
which shall be to those acts like the 
abutments of a suspension bridge to 
the arch that spans the stream. It will 
not do to lay such foundations in haste. 
If this be true in building a bridge, 
how much more so in building a Chris- 
tian character! This thoughtful duty, 
this self-examination, this communion 
with God — how dare we to hurry 
through it as a childish sport? 



266 



The Problem, of Methodism. 



The assimilating, transforming power 
of faith is clearly taught in the Bible 
and demonstrated in daily experience. 
This is true of every kind of faith. 
The whole nature follows the faith, and 
gravitates toward its object. We meet 
men in every community in whose faces 
we see avarice, lust, or conceit, as 
plainly as if written in words. They 
have thought and felt under the power 
of these qualities so long that they are 
made over into their image. " The 
Hindoo, who worships Brahma sleep- 
ing on the stars in immovable calm, 
comes to wear a fixed expression." The 
mediaeval saints, who spent days and 
nights in contemplating the crucifix, 
came to " show the very lineaments of 
the Man of Sorrows, as art had de- 
picted them ; " and, in some cases, it is 
said that the very '-marks of his tort- 



Spiritual Growth. 



267 



ure were transferred to their bodies. " 
Very early the faith of a man hangs out 
its label, and soon the whole man be- 
comes a confession of its truth. A 
transforming process goes on : faith is 
the workman, and the object of faith is 
the pattern. The work begins within, 
down among the affections and desires, 
and the forces move outward until the 
external man becomes, in feature and 
expression, like the object of our wor- 
ship. This power of faith, first to 
transform and then to reveal, is won- 
derful. But as faith never reaches its 
true sphere until it enters the spiritual, 
and never finds its true object until it 
reaches up to God, so its greatest trans- 
forming and revealing power is felt and 
seen in religious experience. Faith is 
the power of love directed by will ; and 
as it works out so it works within, 



268 The Problem of Methodism. 

shaping all things there after a divine 
pattern. It is by this principle that 
Christ unites men to himself. He 
brings men to believe on him in order 
that they may become like him. When 
sin came, death came also ; and the en- 
tire system began to work toward 
death, in body and spirit. Christ in- 
troduces a reversing power, and turns 
the stream of tendency toward life. 
This is no mystery, unless it be a mys- 
tery that one being should change an- 
other into his likeness, or bring him 
under his power. We can conceive of 
a soul so transformed into the image of 
Christ, so recipient of his truth, so in 
sympathy with him, so obedient to him, 
as to have little sense of yesterday or 
to-morrow, to care little for one world 
above another, to heed death as little 
as sleep, because he is so filled with the 



Spiritual Growth. 



269 



life of God ; for it is the nature of spir- 
itual life to assert its pre-eminence over 
physical death. It is toward this high 
state of spiritual life and development 
that Christ is trying to bring us — sow- 
ing in our hearts the seeds of truth and 
love and life eternal. 

As we " grow in grace and in the 
knowledge of our Lord Jesus* Christ," 
there is a united action of all the facul- 
ties of the soul : thought has more faith 
in it, and faith more thought; reason 
more feeling, and feeling more reason ; 
logic and sentiment melt into each 
other; courage is tempered with pru- 
dence, and prudence gets strength and 
courage from wisdom. The law of the 
conservation of forces holds here as in 
the physical universe. This united ac- 
tion of the mind, this co-operation of 
all the faculties, this equilibrium of all 



270 The Problem of Methodism. 



the mental and moral forces of the soul 
is something far higher than the dis- 
jointed experience of the early Chris- 
tian life, something far beyond a state of 
moral purity or sanctification, something 
that can only be reached by a groivth. 
It is like the action of the Divine Mind, 
in which every faculty interpenetrates 
every other, making God one and per- 
fect. JSTow this state of maturity, of 
perfection in a Christian is an intima- 
tion that he is approaching the Divine 
Mind, and getting ready to go and live 
with God. 

When our growth in grace and spir- 
itual knowledge is normal and unchecked 
by sin there comes a state of spiritual 
life called a mellow maturity. The Chris- 
tian graces have ripened and the man 
begins to feel and act like God. His 
heart grows soft, he speaks more kind- 



Spiritual Growth. 



271 



ly, a rich autumnal tint overspreads his 
thoughts and acts. This state is some- 
times regarded as bordering on fanati- 
cism, but it is simply the moral and 
spiritual natures rising above the com- 
mon walks of men. Something of the 
divine patience and charity and wisdom 
begin to show in him, and we now see 
why God made man in his own image, 
and gave him his life to live.* 

Such are some of the conditions and 
results of spiritual growth. The life of 
God in the soul, with its law of expan- 
sion wrapped up in it — the removal of 
all obstructions to its growth, giving it 
a heart "swept and garnished" and a 
mind "free from the law of sin and 

* The idea that such a state can be reached by 
a single act of faith is absurd ; hence the absurdity 
of confounding sanctifi cation with Christian perfec- 
tion — purity with maturity. 



272 The Problem of Methodism. 



death " — wholesome food, drawn from 
the word of God by prayer, meditation, 
and all the means of grace; and then 
giving it free action in deeds of mercy 
in daily life, where we meet so much 
to move our pity and to stir our ener- 
gies. 

Thus the divine life, like all life, has 
its God-appointed methods of develop- 
ment and conditions of spiritual growth, 
and he will not chauge or annul these 
conditions. We can no more grow in 
grace while we ignore these conditions 
than the child can grow while deprived 
of all the conditions of physical growth. 
But if we will comply with these con- 
ditions, we will " go on unto perfection." 

From this stand-point we can see the 
beauty and force of the following divine 
instructions — viz., "As newborn babes, 
desire the sincere milk of the word, 



Spiritual Growth. 



273 



that ye may grow thereby." " There- 
fore, beloved, seeing ye know these 
things before, beware lest ye also, be- 
ing led away with the error of the 
wicked, fall from your own steadfast- 
ness. But grow in grace and in the 
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Je- 
sus Christ." "For when for the time 
ye ought to be teachers, ye have need 
that one teach you again which be the 
first principles of the oracles of God; 
and are become such as have need of 
milk, and not of strong meat. For 
every one that useth milk is unskillful 
in the word of righteousness : for he is 
a babe. But strong meat belongeth to 
them that are of full age, even those 
who by reason of use have their senses 
exercised to discern both good and 
evil" "Therefore leaving the [first} 

principles of the doctrine of Christ, let 
18 



274 The Problem of Methodism. 



us go on unto perfection; not laying 
again the foundation of repentance from 
dead works, and of faith toward God." 
"And he gave some, apostles; and 
some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; 
and some, pastors and teachers ; for the 
perfecting of the saints, for the work of 
the ministry, for edifying of the body 
of Christ : till we all come in the unity 
of the faith, and of the knowledge of 
the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto 
the measure of the stature of the fullness of 
Christ: that we henceforth be no more 
children, tossed to and fro, and carried 
about with every wind of doctrine, by 
the sleight of men, and cunning crafti- 
ness, whereby they lie in wait to de- 
ceive; but speaking the truth in love, 
may grow up into him in all things, 
which is the Head, even Christ." 

After all that has been said and writ- 



Spiritual Growt 



275 



ten about sanctification, it is the birth- 
right of all God's children — "the base> the 
substratum of a grand Christian life.' 1 It 
is to be " cleansed from all unrighteous- 
ness," " by the washing of regeneration 
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost" 
— to be " created anew according to the 
[original] divine pattern in uprightness 
and moral purity. ' ' And Brother Wood 
says: "Purity is not a high state of 
grace, when compared with the privi- 
leges audi possibilities in the divine life." 
Hence the sainted Fletcher said: 
" With me it is a small thing to be 
cleansed from all sin ; but 0 to be filled 
with all the fullness of God! '" And Paul 
prayed "that ye, being rooted and 
grounded in love, may be able to com- 
prehend with all the saints what is the 
breadth, and length, and depth, and 
height ; and to know the love of Christ, 



276 The Problem of Methodism. 

which passeth knowledge, that ye 
might be filled with all the fullness of 
God." 

" Finally, my brethren, be strong in 
the Lord, and in the power of his 
might; . . . praying always with 
all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." 
If we ask the Spirit to help our infirmi- 
ties, enlighten our minds, elevate our 
thoughts, purify our desires, and inten- 
sify our faith, then every groan and 
sigh will be carried up and whispered 
by the Spirit in the ear of mercy, and 
soon the answer returns laden with the 
richest blessings of heaven. But if we 
would "pray in the Spirit" and enjoy 
his aid, we must seek to " know the 
mind of the Spirit," and then yield to 
his divine impressions. Wherever he 
leads we must be willing to go. What- 
ever he dictates we must be willing to 



Spiritual Growth. 



277 



speak or do. The desires he inspires 
we must pour forth in fervent, earnest 
prayer. Those who are led by the 
Spirit are brought into a large place. 
Those who are taught of the Spirit be- 
come wise in the deep things of God. 
And those who are faithful co-workers 
with him enjoy his aid in all its fullness. 
This aid of the Spirit accounts for those 
seasons in which we find our souls 
burdened with a mysterious agony of 
prayer. These intense groanings are 
given in answer to some former prayer 
for the aid of the Spirit ; and now, when 
we least expected it, the answer comes, 
and as we talk with God we know what 
it is to "pray in the spirit!" In such 
seasons every nerve of the soul is 
strung to its highest tension ; we pour 
out our hearts before God ; we pray 
with groanings that can not be uttered ; 



278 The Problem of Methodism, 

then words flow apace, and we speak 
in strains to mortal ears unknown. 
Such prayer is weakness casting itself 
upon divine strength ; infirmity leaning 
on the arm of Omnipotence, and the 
cry of the soul for the fullness of God. 
It is the "weary dove returning to the 
ark " of safety ; the soaring eagle 
mounting upward till lost to all below ; 
the flight of the soul to the bosom of 
God, and basking in the supernal light 
of ineffable glory. To "pray in the 
spirit " is something more than to ut- 
ter words in the ear of God. It is the 
eternal Spirit taking hold of the eternal 
Father through the mediation of the 
eternal Son. It is Divinity in us plead- 
ing with Divinity in heaven ; for " it is 
not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost 
which is in you " — the " Spirit making 
intercession for the saints, according to 



Spiritual Growth. 



279 



the will of God, with groanings that 
can not be uttered." 

A day of glory will yet dawn upon 
the Church ; but before that day shall 
come the Church must travail in agony 
for the "fullness of God." For this 
Christ groaned in the garden and died 
on the cross. For this he sent the 
Holy Spirit to take his place in the 
world, and to " abide with the Church 
forever." And now the Spirit stands 
pledged to help our infirmities ; to take 
of the things of Jesus and show them 
unto us ; to teach us how to pray and 
what to pray for — making intercession 
for us with groanings that are unutter- 
able. He is ready to endue us with 
power from on high and give us tongues 
of fire — to shine into our hearts and 
give us the light of the knowledge of 
the glory of God in the face of Jesus 



280 The Problem of Methodism. 



Christ. He waits to reveal to us the 
unutterable, the inconceivable, and the 
unheard-of things which God hath pre- 
pared for his children. He waits to 
illuminate our minds and souls with 
the dazzling beams of grace radiating 
from the Sun of righteousness. He 
waits to make the glory of God pass 
before us, and give us in beatific vis- 
ions to see the ineffable splendor of the 
divine nature. He waits to unfold and 
apply the exceeding great and precious 
promises to our individual wants, and 
cause us to rejoice with joy unspeaka- 
ble and full of glory. He waits to lead 
us on and on, until we are 

Plunged into the Godhead's deepest sea, 

And lost in his immensity ! 



CHAPTKR X. 

The Christian's Secret of a Hap- 
py Life. 

SECTION 1. LOVE AND OBEDIENCE. 

Man" was made to love and obey God. 
This was his peculiar function, his 
highest bliss, while in his pristine state 
of purity. To " love God with all the 
heart, soul, mind, and strength " was, 
and is, the sum of all his duties, the 
apex of all his happiness, and the cul- 
minating point of all his immortal 
longings. God is love. This is the se- 
cret of the universe. The whole crea- 
tion swims in an ocean of divine love. 
Every law and relation is established 
in love. To have this love "shed 
abroad in our hearts by the Holy 

Ghost," and then to respond to its 

(281) 



282 The Problem of Methodism. 



mighty harmonies, and to know its 
height and depth, is the great and final 
achievement. To love God is simply 
to put ourselves in accord with the rul- 
ing principle of the universe. Consider 
Christ as the incarnation of divine love, 
and we see at once why we are to " love 
him and keep his commandments." 
By his incarnation divine love was 
brought into humanity. This was the 
only method by which human and divine 
love could coalesce. Hence, " if any man 
love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him 
be accursed when the Lord cometh." 

The character of Christ stands up 
alone in the world's history. It is a 
fact the most pure, ennobling, and 
transforming in the whole range of hu- 
man knowledge. " He is the fairest 
among ten thousand, and the one alto- 
gether lovely." One view of his cruci- 



The Christian's Secret 283 



fied Lord revolutionized Paul's whole 
nature. Thus it has been with thou- 
sands. Such a view of the crucified 
one lifts man's whole nature at once; 
and, like every thing perfect or divine, 
the more we know of it the loftier will 
be our appreciation, and the sublimer 
will be the transforming results. Like 
the blue arch above us, the character of 
Christ rises as we rise, lifting itself up 
into unattainable heights of purity and 
moral grandeur. When we» shall have 
studied his nature through endless 
ages, and shall have passed from one 
height of glory to a higher still, the 
highest summit that we shall ever 
reach will only give us a more enlarged 
view of his boundless perfection and 
infinite loveliness. 

Christ came not to teach the doctrine 
of the fall, but rather to redeem a fallen 



284 The Problem of Methodism. 

race; not to teach the love of God, 
but rather to stand forth the incarnation 
of divine love; not to teach the resur- 
rection, but rather to demonstrate it by 
his own resurrection and ascension. 
The necessities of man were beyond the 
reach of mere teaching; he needed 
more than information. The wail of 
humanity told that its disorder was 
more than a synonym of ignorance. 
Others had taught and theorized. Ages 
of talk had passed, but man's condition 
called for one who could perform what 
others had promised ; one who could 
make real what others imagined; one 
who would not save by teaching, but 
teach by saving; one who would not 
give a theory of life, but life itself — a 
personal Redeemer, whose words were 
deeds — the deeds of a Being mighty to 
save. When he could say no more he 



The Christian' } s Secret. 285 



unveiled the cross and let that speak; 
when his lips were closed, he opened 
his heart and spake in blood ; when 
his life-work was ended he exceeded 
all in the utterances of his death. Si- 
lence, if you will, every other utterance 
of his wondrous life ; throw a veil over 
every other act he performed; hide 
every other object in the universe — but 
let me see the cross, for it tells me that 
he is my all-sufficient Saviour. If you 
will, pull down the moon, seal up the 
stars, and extinguish the sun, but let 
the hill of calvary stand, for there I 
learn that infinite love agonized to re- 
veal itself, and died to utter its fullness. 
But for this an ocean of divine love 
would have remained fore ver concealed ; 
but it found an ocean-channel in the 
death-throes of the Cross, and now we 
read in crimsoned lines that " God is 



286 The Problem of Methodism. 



love!" 0 divine love! The source 
of our redemption ! The essence of all 
our happiness ! The sweetest harmony 
of the soul! The music of angels! 
The quintessence of heaven ! That 
which melts the hearts of men and 
reconciles the discords of earth! A 
heavenly exotic transplanted in the 
garden of a purified soul — a divine 
creeper which entwines for support 
around the cross ! 

We are to be satisfied with nothing 
less than such a manifestation of su- 
preme love to God as will lead us to 
" serve him with a perfect heart" — to 
delight ourselves in him as the source 
of all our felicity, to find in him all our 
happiness, so that we can rejoice and 
solace ourselves in God as our exceed- 
ing joy. " If ye love me, keep my 
commandments." 



The Christian s Secret. 



287 



SECTION 2. THE PHILOSOPHY OF RESIGNA- 
TION. 

The will of God is the supreme good 
of all created intelligences. God has a 
right, an infinite right, to our entire 
submission. All sin, in its ultimate 
analysis, is a revolt of the will of the 
creature from the Creator. Here we 
find the tap-root of depravity, the jugu- 
lar vein of the old man, and the spinal 
column of sin. Now it is reasonable 
that our restoration should begin where 
our ruin commenced — the remedy must 
be applied to the seat of the disease. 
The submission of our wills to God's 
will is not only right, but our happiness. 
Without this there can be no true re- 
ligion in the heart ; for it is implied in 
the very term disciple, and is a prereq- 
uisite to the right performance of every 
Christian duty. Therefore, in the econ- 
omy of salvation, God requires us to 



288 The Problem of Methodism. 



submit to him, to his laws and provi- 
dence, to consecrate ourselves, our 
bodies and souls, our talents and influ- 
ence, our time and property — our all — to 
him and his cause. We are to do as he 
directs, suffer as he appoints, and move 
in the sphere he selects. 

When we thus resign all into his 
hands then he becomes responsible for 
our happiness, so long as we keep all 
upon the altar and live up to our vows 
of consecration. The assurance to such 
a one is "all things work together for 
good " to him. Is not this a grand and 
happy life? All he requires of us is 
an entire acquiescence in and submis- 
sion to his will — " not slothful in busi- 
ness; fervent in spirit; serving the 
Lord." No need of all this fear and 
complaint against providence; all this 
anxious "thought for your life, what ye 



The Christian's Secret. 289 



shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor 
yet for the body, what ye shall put on " 
— all this is superfluous, not to say sin- 
ful. It is our duty to do as God directs, 
and "he will supply all our need ac- 
cording to his riches in glory by Christ 
Jesus." 

The true Christian, therefore, is not 
weighted down with the distracting 
care of earthly things ; for he seeks the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness 
first — first in point of time, in point of 
importance, and of interest — seeks them 
first all through life, knowing that all 
other needful things will be added. He 
gives to the poor, and thereby lends 
unto the Lord, knowing that he will re- 
pay a hundred-fold. He goes and 
works in the Lord's vineyard, knowing 
that whatsoever is right he shall re- 
ceive. He serves his " Master in single- 
19 



290 The Problem of Methodism. 

ness of heart," knowing that he will 
supply all his necessities. Here is the 
philosophy of a holy and a happy life, 
as it was taught not by Socrates and 
Plato, but by the Son of God. The 
Lord is our defense, the Holy One of 
Israel is our refuge, and Omnipotence 
is pledged in our behalf. "He has 
sworn, and he will perform it, as for 
blessing he will bless thee." If it were 
necessary, he would make the universe 
tributary to our happiness ; and if that 
would not redeem his promise, he would 
create ten thousand more worlds and 
make them all subservient to the same 
great end. But what is one drop of 
water compared to the ocean, a leaf to 
the sylvan forest, or an atom to the 
whole creation ? Less still are all our 
wants compared to the resources of him 
who openeth his hand and satisfieth the 



The Christian's Secret. 



291 



desires of every living thing. Shall 
the mite desist from bearing its weight 
upon the earth lest it should give way 
beneath its tiny feet? or shall the ani- 
malcule be troubled lest it should not 
find room and sustenance in the mighty 
deep? Yes; let these things be, but 
let no man fear to take the Lord for his 
portion lest he should suffer m the end. 
If there is a scene on earth over which 
angels might weep, it is the distrustful 
care so often seen on the faces of those 
who are called the children of God. 
Yet how tenderly does Jesus rebuke 
our unbelief: "0 thou of little faith, 
wherefore didst thou doubt! " 

As God has promised not only to do 
his children good, but the greatest 
good ; and as he looks to our eternal 
interest as being of more value than 
that of time, so he regulates every part 



292 The Froblem of Methodism. 

of his providence with reference to our 
happiness in the world to come; and 
so it will frequently happen that there 
will be many things in this life that 
will be mysterious to us at the time. 
" What I do now thou knowest not, but 
thou shalt know hereafter." To carry 
out his plans, and to make good his 
promise, our Father has to spoil our 
earthly comforts and joys in order to 
increase those to be revealed in heaven. 
And often that which he sees will make 
for our happiness in the world to come 
will appear to us as the destroying 
angel of all our hopes in this world. 
Just as the child playing with his toys 
thinks it a death-stroke to all his hap- 
piness when his father takes him from 
them and puts him under a course of 
mental discipline, simply because the 
child can onlv see himself as ever re- 



The Christian's Secret. 



293 



maining a child and retaining his fond- 
ness for boyish sports, while the father 
looks far beyond to the time when the 
boy will be a man, with a capacity to 
revel in the higher joys that glow amid 
the corruscations of a brilliant intel- 
lect; so our heavenly Father, when he 
tears us away from our earthly toys and 
puts us under severe discipline, looks 
far beyond to that blissful abode where 
an eternal weight of glory will be the 
feast of the soul. 

It often happens that as the pano- 
rama of an unfolding providence passes 
before us we gaze in astonishment at 
these heavenly wonders ; w T e strive to 
comprehend them ; we look at them and 
ask, "What do they mean?" but no 
answer comes to our troubled hearts. 
The clouds roll up and off, and we shud- 
der as the vision of his chariot sweeps 



294 



The Problem of Methodism, 



by, because we do not see the hand that 
guides it. We are perplexed on every 
hand; we reason, speculate, and philos- 
ophize, and fall back entangled in the 
meshes of our own philosophy, and no 
light comes to our bewildered minds 
and throbbing hearts. We are left to 
walk by faith, and not by sight. But it 
shall not always be thus. At the pres- 
ent we only look through a glass dark- 
ly, and we must be content by knowing 
in part. The reason we think that so 
little has been revealed is because there 
is so much yet to be made known; and 
the reason that so much looms up in the 
far-off future which we can not compre- 
hend is because there is so much al- 
ready made comprehensible. Instead 
of being so much troubled about these 
mysteries that belong to the future, let 
us feed on that which is already made 



The Christian s Secret. 295 



plain. We ought not to refuse to ad- 
mire and study the worlds which the 
telescope brings to view because it gives 
us reason to believe that all we know of 
the material universe is as nothing- 
compared with what is yet to be re- 
vealed. He that improves the present 
will be the better prepared to under- 
stand the future. The child must 
neither throw away nor neglect his 
arithmetic because he can not demon- 
strate a problem in Euclid. The de- 
sired knowledge is not withheld arbi- 
trarily, but is dispensed according to a 
wise economy, as we are prepared to 
receive it and are able to bear it. There 
are some things in the plan of salvation 
which the angels desired to look into, 
but they were denied the privilege. 
The gratification of a mere desire to 
know might thwart God's designs con- 



296 The Problem of Methodism. 



cerning us and obstruct the develop- 
ment of our hearts. Our hearts must 
keep pace with our intellects, our faith 
with our curiosity, and our practice 
with our knowledge. There is enough 
made plain to guide us in the pursuit of 
more, and progress is the great law 
here as well as everywhere else. We 
are traveling on to the fountain of light, 
and in that light which makes manifest 
all these mysteries will be finally ex- 
plained. If faithful, we shall stand at 
last on the mount of God, and, looking 
back, all will be luminous like a thread 
of silver light running down the mount- 
ain-side up which the hand of our Fa- 
ther has led us. 

Shall we not be resigned to his will 
when he assures us that, whatever may 
befall his children, he will make it a 
means of augmenting their happiness 



The Christian's Secret. 297 



during the rolling cycles of eternity? 
What though the history of virtue is a 
history filled with suffering ; that many 
of its scenes are drawn in characters of 
blood; that persecution has often pre- 
pared her racks and kindled her fires ; 
that men of purest life and strongest 
faith have pined in dungeons or wan- 
dered in exile; and that " others had 
trials of cruel mockings and scourgings 
— were stoned, were sawn asunder, were 
tempted, being destitute, afflicted, tor- 
mented " — what of all this, if Paul tells 
us that they suffered these things " that 
they might obtain a better resurrec- 
tion?" Moses, in leaving the " treas- 
ures of Egypt, in suffering affliction 
with the people of God, and bearing 
the reproach of Christ, had respect 
unto the recompense of the reward ; for 
he endured as seeing him who is invis- 



298 



The Problem, of Methodism. 



ible." How often have the sublimest 
virtues, the holiest affections been 
evolved under the influence of sorrow ! 
How much has the world risen in im- 
portance, how much has the moral uni- 
verse gained in goodness and glory by 
the afflictions through which the saints 
have been called to pass ! Had the 
trial of virtue been dispensed with, had 
there been no such thing in the econo- 
my of providence as tribulation to the 
righteous, then the examples of Paul's 
"great cloud of witnesses" would have 
been lost, the field of moral beaut}^ and 
heroism wonderfully circumscribed, and 
the most touching incidents of time 
would have been lost to the moral uni- 
verse. Now, acid to all this that " eter- 
nal weight of glory " which these " light 
afflictions shall work out for us," and 
is it not enough to lift up the heads that 



The Christian's Secret. 299 



are bowed down and confirm the feeble 
knees, to suppress every murmur that 
rises in the throbbing hearts wrung and 
crushed with sorrow, to clothe the dying- 
hour in the gorgeous drapery of im- 
mortal visions and hang around the 
darkness of life and death the glowing- 
ensign of eternal resignation*! 

SECTION 3. CHRISTIANS FOR THE TIMES. 

The duties and responsibilities of 
Christians are peculiar to themselves. 
They stand isolated in one sense from 
the mass of the people, and the influ- 
ence which emanates from them gives 
tone to the popular movements of their 
day. They are the exponents of the 
gospel, the oracles that speak to a 
slumbering world, the guardians of 
pure religion. It is desirable to have a 
ministry who can logically sustain, 
clearly elucidate, and enforce the cloc- 



300 



The Problem of Methodism. 



trines of Christianity; but the true 
power of the gospel is found in the holy 
lives of those who profess it, be they 
clergy or laity. The world fixes its 
standard of religion not so much by 
the Bible and pulpit as by the effect it 
produces upon the life and character of 
Christians. The preacher may expa- 
tiate Sabbath after Sabbath upon the 
blessings and influences of the gospel ; 
but what will this avail if he is sur- 
rounded by a worldly-minded and time- 
serving and an unholy Church ? Now 
if every minister could say to his peo- 
ple, as Paul did to the Corinthians, " Ye 
are our epistles known and read of all 
men," then the mouths of the gainsay- 
ers would be closed. What cares the 
infidel world for tenets merely stated 
and defended in a cold, dogmatic form ? 
It is the life of a holy man, though 



The Christian's Secret. 301 



there be but one, they dread more than 
all the force of eloquence and the de- 
ductions of logic. But "if the salt has 
lost its savor, wherewith shall the world 
be salted?" Nothing in the moral 
world is more useless, pernicious, and 
contemptible than an impure, worldly- 
minded, pleasure-seeking Church — use- 
less, because it does not answer the 
avowed end of its existence, to purify 
the world; pernicious, because it cor- 
rupts the world; contemptible, because 
it is the ridicule of the world and the 
disgust of heaven. (Rev. iii. 16.) 

The first business and highest voca- 
tion of every Christian is to "perfect 
holiness in the fear of God." The idea 
that a man's religion is a secondary 
thing is egregiously false, because it is 
based upon a low estimate of the end 
for which we were created. It is found- 



302 



The Problem of Methodism. 



ed on the notion that a man's business 
constitutes his highest concern, that it 
is to occupy all his time as the source 
of his highest enjoyment, and includes 
all his duties. Now the very reverse of 
this is true. The divine command is, 
u Seek first the kingdom of God and his 
righteousness." "Whether ye eat or 
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to 
the glory of God." Religion should 
put its impress upon the whole char- 
acter, expand and dilate every power, 
enkindle every element of sensibility, 
make every faculty tributary to its 
great end, until it becomes the master- 
principle to regulate every-day life and 
the true glory of man. Let this become 
the status of the Church, and who can 
estimate the results ? 

We need just now, in a peculiar 
sense, Christians for the times. In the 



The Christians Secret. 303 



providence of God the present genera- 
tion is surrounded by extraordinary 
events and opportunities. During the 
last thirty years the civilized world has 
been in commotion. Sages and philos- 
ophers, scientists and theologians have 
gazed in consternation at a series of 
events so wonderful in their nature and 
so rapid in their succession as to appear 
in retrospect more like the illusions of 
fancy than scenes of real life. Owing 
to these upheavals, society is thrown up 
from its lowest depths ; old lines of de- 
markation are gone ; the obscure have 
come to the front ; the masses are wan- 
dering in the chaotic fields of doubt and 
uncertainty. Thus thousands are drift- 
ing on these troubled waters, or driving 
into a darker sea at every plunge, and 
are anxiously looking for some beacon 
to guide them into a peaceful harbor. 



304 The Problem of Methodism. 



We need, therefore, Christians of deep 
principles to sustain them amid the 
rage of this terrible storm ; of burning 
zeal to stand along the breach of time 
as the light of the world peering far 
above the wreck that sweeps around, 
and throwing the light of the cross far 
out upon the surging billows, to guide 
these storm-wrecked mariners to the 
desired harbor. We need Christians 
who will ride upon the crest-wave of 
progress, rise upon the flood-tide of im- 
provement, and keep pace with the ad- 
venturous spirit of the age, to mold 
and direct all for the advancement of 
the kingdom of Christ. We need 
Christians of deep experience and stern 
metal, who will ring out clear and 
strong upon the world, to call it to a 
pause in its mad career; men of pure 
hearts and powerful faith, who can 



The Christian's Secret. 305 



stand like the storm-swept rock, the 
same amid the combined shock of winds 
and waves ; of moral power to com- 
mand our resources and direct our en- 
ergies, arresting the proud monjarrchs of 
crime, the devotees of fashion, and the 
worshipers of mammon, and secure 
their allegiance to the King of kings 
and Lord of lords. 

In connection w T ith these stirring 
events a few scientists have made, and 
are still making, a fearful attack upon 
the Bible. These enemies of the cross 
are trying to capture the strongholds 
of learning and plant their batteries 
firmly upon the hill of science. At 
such a crisis every actor on the stage 
of life is an object of more than ordi- 
nary interest; for at such a time the 
facilities for doing either good or evil 
are fearfully augmented. The mind 



306 



The Problem of Methodism. 



and heart of the devout Christian 
throbs with joy in the contemplation 
of the good he may do by "spreading 
scriptural holiness over these lands." 
Thanks to heaven, Zion's watchmen 
have already taken the alarm, while 
here and there a stripling from the 
ranks of the laity has gone forth with 
pebble and sling to meet these Goliaths 
of sin and Satan. The two hundred 
thousand converts of 1887 stand up as 
living witnesses of the fact that the 
gospel is still the power of God unto 
salvation. The tide of grace, which 
has already set in, will no doubt con- 
tinue to flow until the universal Church 
shall be refreshed, and the reapers in 
the Lord's vineyard shall gather 
sheaves in all lands, and the rejoicing 
angels shout " harvest home ! " 

But before that day dawns the latent 



The Christian s Secret. 



307 



energies and dormant powers of the 
Church must be baptized with holy 
fire and burning zeal. Instead of the 
kindling light she must have the glow- 
ing blaze, and instead of the gentle, 
permeating heat the volcanic shock 
and throes of fire and flame. It is the 
perfection of folly to expect success 
without these demonstrations of the 
Spirit*. To think of conquering the 
world without them is as silly as to 
think of melting icebergs with moon- 
beams. Heaven sympathizes with a 
Church in travail ; and for the birth of 
souls the whole creation groaneth and 
travaileth in pain together, with mighty 
throes, until the shout of a newborn 
world shall usher in the millennial 
morn. 



CHAPTER XI. 

"Now of the Things Which We 
Have Spoken, This Is the 
Sum." 

The Problem discussed and the con- 
clusions reached in the foregoing chap- 
ters are of so much importance that 
we add a brief review. In regard to 
Mr. Wesley's theory of the divine life, 
we have much we would like to say, 
but not now. There are a few things, 
however, that must be said here and 
now. It is evident : 

1. That Mr. Wesley believed in the 
"second change theory of sanctifica- 
tion." 

2. That his views of the distinction 
between regeneration and sanctification 

were confused. At one time he said: 

(308) 



Conclusion. 



309 



"It is undeniably true that sanctifica- 
tion is a progressive work, carried on in 
the soul by slow degrees." At another 
time he said: " Certainly sanctification 
is an instantaneous deliverance from all 
sin." And on one occasion he said : 
"Perhaps I have an exceedingly com- 
plex idea of sanctification." 

3. That there is not a passage of 
scripture which Mr. Wesley uses in de- 
scribing the state of the sanctified that 
he does not, somewhere, apply to the 
state of the regenerated. All that he 
gives to the one he takes from the oth- 
er ; hence, according to Mr. Wesley, re- 
generation and sanctification are iden- 
tical. 

4. That Mr. Wesley relied on the 
(so-called) experiences of men for his 
"second change theory of sanctifica- 
tion," and not on the word of God ; for 



310 The Problem, of Methodism. 



he says, " The Scriptures are silent on 
the subject. The point is not deter- 
mined, at least not in express terms, in 
any part of the oracles of God." And 
it is a remarkable fact that some of the 
men upon whose testimony Mr. Wesley 
accepted the " second change" theory 
soon after professed a "third blessing," 
or change, which lifted them up " above 
temptations." Hence, the question is, 
not what men say they have experi- 
enced, but What does the Bible teach ? 
what is the Bible theory of the divine 
life? So far as *the "second change 
theory of sanctification " is concerned, 
Mr. t Wesley has taken it out of the 
doctrines taught in the word of God, 
and left it to stand or fall upon the tes- 
timony of men. Is this the reason why 
those who profess sanctification as a 
" second change " differ from other good 



Conclusion. 



311 



men and women in nothing except in 
"testifying*?" 

5. Mr. Wesley was led into the " res- 
idue theory of regeneration" by the 
Ninth Article of the Church of En- 
gland, and this opened the way to ac- 
cept the " second change theory of sanc- 
tification," upon human testimony, when 
"the Scriptures were silent on the sub- 
ject." But as he changed his views on 
sanctification from saying it was a "pro- 
gressive work carried on by slow de- 
grees," to say it was "an instantaneous 
deliverance from all sin," so he finally 
rejected the " residue theory of regener- 
ation " so far as to cut it out of the Ar- 
ticles of Faith sent over to America in 
1784. And he so far abandoned both 
the "residue theory" and the "second 
change theory," in his sermon on "Per- 
fection " in 1785, as to say not one word 



312 



The Problem of Methodism. 



about "inbred sin," and to say that 
" salvation from all sin is the least, the 
lowest, branch of j>erfection." 

6. Mr. Wesley always gave a Bible 
definition of regeneration ; and but for 
the fact that he felt bound, as an or- 
dained elder in the Church of England, 
to teach the doctrine of her Ninth Ar- 
ticle,* and for the fact that he was dis- 
posed to accept, without closely analyz- 
ing, any good man's experience, there is 
every evidence to believe that the " res- 
idue theory" and the "second change 
theory" would never have had a place 

*Mr. Wesley says: "A serious clergyman de- 
sired to know in what points we differed from the 
Church of England. I answered : ' To the best of my 
knowledge, in none. The doctrines we teach are 
the doctrines of the Church of England — indeed, 
the fundamental doctrines of the Church as clearly 
laid down both in her prayers, articles, and homi- 
lies: " (Watson's " Life of Wesley," pp. 76, 77.) 



Conclusion. 



313 



in his theology; or if they had crept 
in, he would have expunged them from 
his teachings long before he expunged 
them from our Articles of Faith. 

We have said that Mr. Wesley al- 
ways gave a Bible definition of regen- 
eration Here it is in extenso: 

Mr. Wesley says : " The state of a 
justified person is inexpressibly great 
and glorious. He is born again, not of 
blood, nor of flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God. He is a child of God, 
a member of Christ, an heir of the 
kingdom of heaven. The peace of God, 
which passeth all understanding, keep- 
eth his heart and mind in Jesus Christ. 
His very body is a temple of the Holy 
Ghost, and a habitation of God. 
Through the spirit he is created anew 
in Christ Jesus ; he is washed, he is 
sanctified. His heart is purified by 



314 The Problem of Methodism. 



faith ; lie is cleansed from the corrup- 
tion that is in the world; the love of 
God is shed abroad in his heart by the 
Holy Ghost which is given unto him. 
And so long as he walketh in love 
(which he may always do), he worships 
God in spirit and in truth. He keepeth 
the commandments of God, and doeth 
those things which are pleasing in his 
sight — so exercising himself as to have 
a conscience void of offense toward God 
and man, and he has power both over 
inward and outward sin, even from the 
moment he was justified." 

Again Mr. Wesley says of the new 
birth : " It is the change wrought in the 
whole soul by the Almighty Spirit of 
God when it is created anew in Christ 
Jesus, when it is renewed after the 
image of God in righteousness and true 
holiness, when the love of the world is 



Conclusion. 



315 



changed into the love of God, pride 
into humility, passion into meekness ; 
. . . a change from inward sinful- 
ness to inward holiness ; when earthly 
desires — the desire of the flesh, the de- 
sire of the eyes, and the pride of life — 
are in that instant changed by the pow- 
er of the Spirit of God into heavenly 
desires." " In a word, when the earth- 
ly, sensual, devilish mind is turned into 
the mind that was in Jesus." 

"Well,'' says Mr. Wesley, "what 
more than this can be implied in entire 
sanctification? It does not imply any 
new kind of holiness. Let no man im- 
agine this. From the moment we are 
justified till we give up our spirits to 
God, love is the fulfilling of the law. 
. . . Love is the sum of Christian 
sanctification. It is the one kind of 
holiness which is found onlv in various 



316 The Problem of Methodism. 



degrees in the believers who are dis- 
tinguished by St. John into little chil- 
dren, young men, and fathers. The 
difference between one and the other 
properly lies in the degree of love." 

Now the same love which is in the 
''Fathers " is in the " little children ; " 
and if this " love is the sum of sanctifi- 
cation," and the love of the babe is the 
same in kind as that of the father, it 
follows that if the father is sanctified 
so is the babe ; if the father is pure, the 
babe is pure; for the difference is not in 
kind, but in degree, and the degree de- 
pends not upon an extra act of cleans- 
ing, but upon capacity; and this differ- 
ence of capacity between the babe and 
the father is the result of growth, and 
not the result of a "second change;" 
but in order for the babe in Christ to 
become a man in Christ, he must have 



Conclusion. 



317 



not simply a "second blessing," but a 
"blessing" everyday. But is the babe, 
the newborn soul, sanctified " wholly V 
Certainly ; for he has that " love which 
is the sum of Christian sanctification." 
Moreover, Mr. Wesley says : "'To for- 
give us our sins ' is to take away the 
guilt of them ; and to ' cleanse us from 
all unrighteousness ' is to purify our 
souls from every kind and every degree 
of it." " If any sin remain, we are not 
cleansed from all sin; if any unright- 
eousness remain in the soul, it is not 
cleansed from all unrighteousness.' " 
(See Notes I., John i. 9, and Sermon 
XL.) But does this babe " go right on 
to perfection," without a "second 
change 0 ?" Certainly; if he does not 
u leave his first love" and "defile his 
garments." In that event he must 
"repent" and "confess," and be "for- 



318 The Problem of Methodism. 



given" and "cleansed," just as any, 
other sinner; and this has to be re- 
peated as often as he willfully "departs 
from the living God." There is but 
one process in the Bible to get rid of 
the guilt, the power, and the pollution 
of sin, and that process offers a peesent 

SALVATION FROM ALL SIN, BY FAITH IN 

Cheist, to all who will accept it on 
these terms ; and he who is thus forgiv- 
en and cleansed is to reach the " higher 
life," "perfection," or "maturity," by 
"growing in grace and in the knowl- 
edge of our Lord Jesus Christ," by 
" abiding in Christ, and keeping his 
commandments," and by " walking- 
after the Spirit" and "fulfilling the 
righteousness of the law." 

7. It is clear that no little of Mr. 
Wesley's confusion and " complex ideas 
of sanctification " grew out of the fact 



Conclusion. 



319 



that he confounded sanctification with 
Christian perfection. Hence his origi- 
nal idea that " sanctification is a pro- 
gressive work, carried on in the soul by 
slow degrees." Then, after he had dis- 
covered that " sanctification is an in- 
stantaneous deliverance from all sin," 
he confounded sanctification with holi- 
ness. This mistake was more natural 
than the other, because Mr. Wesley 
was a firm believer in the " doctrine of 
created holiness." * Now holiness, like 
perfection, presupposes moral purity, or 
sanctification ; but as perfection is 
reached by a pure soul growing in grace, 
so holiness is the result of a pure soul 
living right— " fulfilling the righteous- 

* A doctrine that has been the source of several 
errors running all through Methodist theology, and 
about which I shall have something to say in the 
future, Deo volente. 



320 



The Problem of Methodism. 



ness of the law." Hence, while moral 
purity is the result of a divine act, holi- 
ness in a moral creature is the result of 
right action— that is, God can make us 
pure; but beyond this he can not make 
us holy. Hence, the possession of all 
the moral faculties in a pure or a puri- 
fied state, and the possession of holiness, 
should never be confounded any more 
than purity and maturity. Now Mr. 
Wesley made both these mistakes ; 
and in so doing he had at times "an 
exceedingly complex idea of sanctifica- 
tion," and not a few of our modern Fa- 
thers and teachers are in this particu- 
lar genuine Wesleyan Methodists — 
"Simon Pure." But they differ with 
Mr. Wesley in this: Mr. Wesley al- 
ways changed his views when he saw 
his error;* but they, like the "law of 



* He changed his views, but was too busy to go 



Conclusion. 



321 



the Medes and Persians, change not;" 
and, what is worse, they can not see how 
it was possible for Mr. Wesley to have 
done so ! {Ex vitio alterius, sapiens 
emendat mum.) 

It is a remarkable fact that Mr. 
Wesley had the moral courage to fol- 
low truth although it led him to contra- 
dict what he had already published. 
But few men thus love truth, and fewer 
still understand the charm truth has to 
such a man. Thus Mr. Wesley went 
on searching for truth and publishing 
his thoughts to the world, never dream- 
ing that those who should come after 
him would adopt either the errors or 

back and change what he had written and published 

on the subject. Dr. Bledsoe has shown that Mr. 

Wesley intended to revise his works, but finally he 

left this work of revision to those who should come 

after him. Is it not time this work should be done 

bv the General Conference? 
21 



322 The Problem of Methodism. 

mistakes with which he started but out- 
grew and set aside; much less did he 
suppose that posterity would hold him 
responsible for errors which he had re- 
jected by contradicting them. To set 
this thought clearly before the reader 
has been the one object we have had in 
view in arraying Mr. Wesley against 
himself; but in doing this we have also 
had some insight into the magnitude of 
some of the errors which he had inher- 
ited from the Church of England, the 
mother of us all. In religious doctrine 
inherited error, like inherited depravi- 
ty, can only be overcome by the throes 
of a new creation and a baptism of light 
and love. This baptism we believe Mr. 
Wesley received, and the evidences 
thereof are found in our expurgated 
Articles of Faith, and scattered all 
through his later writings, but especially 



Conclusion. 



323 



in his sermon on " Perfection," pub- 
lished only six years before his death 
and one year after he had publicly re- 
jected the residue theory of regenera- 
tion by expunging the clause in which 
it was baptized into the Creed of the 
Church. 

Now this sermon on " Perfection " is 
in such perfect accord with Mr. Wes- 
ley's " Notes on the New Testament," 
and with his definition of the new birth, 
and in such harmony with the theory 
of the divine life advocated in these 
pages that if we were to add it as the 
closing chapter, one who is not familiar 
with it would never suspect that its 
author had ever held the " residue the- 
ory of regeneration," or the "second 
change theory of sanctification," while 
not a few who are teaching both these 
"theories" would read the chapter 



324 



The Problem of Methodism. 



without ever suspecting that Mr. Wes- 
ley was its author. For the present we 
take our leave of Mr. Wesley, but not 
without assuring the reader that our 
admiration of that great and good man 
has increased at every step in the in- 
vestigation necessary to write these 
pages. 

We learn from this entire discussion 
several important lessons : 

1. That no state of grace can be 
reached in this life where our natural 
sensibilities may not be stirred and ex- 
cited toward forbidden objects ; but that 
there is no sin in this excitement, pro- 
vided there is no concurrence of the 
will. 

2. That while temptation necessarily 
implies the power to yield, yet the very 
laws of the mind which make a tempta- 
tion severe to the young convert will 



Conclusion. 



325 



react in favor of him who stands firm 
for a long time. 

3. That the perfection, or "higher 
life," to which we are called as justified 
believers is not the result of a " second" 
and separate act of cleansing, but it is 
reached by a true unfolding of our mor- 
al and spiritual powers, together with 
the integrity of character which is su- 
perinduced by a retroaction upon the 
activity involved in resisting tempta- 
tion successfully. 

4. That while development and pro- 
gression may ever remain a law of our 
spiritual and intellectual being, yet 
when we have so subjected our entire 
being to the will of Christ that a state 
of perfect moral equilibrium is reached 
— when the moral strength and reflex 
influence which follows right action 
have reached a point that cancels the 



326 The Problem of Methodism. 



same natural consequences of wrong 
action, so that we are "rooted and es- 
tablished" in the principles of right- 
eousness—then we have reached that 
holiness and perfection which is required 
of us, and which is the exalted privilege 
held up to every believer. 

5. That if God in his wisdom calls 
the justified soul into eternity as soon 
as he is regenerated, there is no neces- 
sity for a " second change " to prepare 
him for heaven ; but being " renewed 
in the image of God " and " created ac- 
cording to the divine pattern in up- 
rightness and moral purity," he, like 
the thief, may go directly from the place 
of forgiveness to the paradise of God, 
without having to pass through either 
the theological purgatory of Protestant- 
ism or the penal purgatory of Catholi- 
cism, 



Conclusion. 



327 



6. That the cause of so little holiness 
in the Church is because so many yield 
to temptation and live the most of their 
time in a state of condemnation — though 
they may not have renounced their 
original purpose to serve God ; and that 
the conviction of inbred sin which pro- 
fessing Christians frequently have is 
not the remains of moral corruption left 
in them at the new birth, but the cor- 
ruption resulting from wrong action aft- 
er justification. 

7. That the reason the best Chris- 
tians who have ever lived have written 
the bitterest things against themselves 
is not because they were cleansed only 
in part at the moment of regeneration, 
but because they had reached a state in 
the divine life which enabled them to 
detect the slightest deviation from that 
law which requires truth in the inward 



328 



The Problem of Methodism. 



parts, the righteousness of which is to 
be fulfilled in us. 

8. That many have had needless 
trouble from confounding temptation 
and sin, so that every time they felt 
any excitement of their sensibilities 
under enticement, they believed that 
they had sinned, whereas this excite- 
ment was the essence of temptation; 
while another class, accepting the doc- 
trine of "sin in believers," have lived 
for years in a state of condemnation, 
dreaming that all was right, because 
they had not denied the faith, commit- 
ting sin daily, but charging it all to the 
" old man " whom they intended to put 
to death by and by ; and that nearly all 
total apostates from the faith come 
from these two classes of errorists. 

9. That while the "perfection" here- 
in defined is of necessity the work of 



Conclusion. 



329 



time, yet who can tell how soon it may 
be reached ? The fact is, when we come 
to understand the philosophy of a holy 
life we see that it may be reached much 
sooner than most Christians suppose. 
If the reflex influence of the first wrong- 
act was such as to pervert and corrupt 
Adam's entire nature, it is reasonable 
to suppose that if the young convert 
would resist and overcome every temp- 
tation from the moment of conversion, 
he would not be very long in reaching 
a moral equilibrium where the reflex 
influence of right action would over- 
come the force of old habits, so as to 
establish him in the truth and give 
him all the fruits of the Spirit and 
graces of the gospel. Is not this Chris- 
tian perfection? 

10. That while it is the privilege and 
duty of every one born of God thus to 



330 The Problem of Methodism. 

go on unto perfection ; yet, " if any man 
sin, we have an advocate with the Fa- 
ther," so that no one should give up be- 
cause he is overtaken again and again, 
but take warning of the past, continue 
the struggle until he becomes rooted 
and grounded and established, so as to 
"abide in Christ and sin not;" and 
though this does not put the Christian 
beyond the reach of temptation, yet it 
increases his moral power to resist it, 
and augments the probabilities of his 
final salvation — nevertheless "let him 
that most assuredly standeth take heed 
lest he fall." 

Finally, we learn that the true meth- 
od of obtaining the "higher life," or 
Christian perfection, is not by " laying 
again the foundation of repentance and 
faith," but, "leaving the principles of 
the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto 



Conclusion. 



331 



perfection" "until we all come in the 
unity of the faith and knowledge of the 
Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto 
the measure of the fullness of Christ ; " 
" that we henceforth be no more children 
but may grow up into him in all things, 
which is the head, even Christ." And 
now " as ye have yielded your members 
servants to uncleanness and to iniquity 
unto iniquity, even so now yield your 
members servants to righteousness unto 
holiness. For when ye were the serv- 
ants of sin ye were free from righteous- 
ness, but now being made free from sin, 
and become servants to God, ye have 

YOUR FRUIT UNTO HOLINESS, AND THE 
END EVERLASTING LIFE." 



/3v. 5 



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